Arriving Home and Greeting Etiquette

[Cake]

OK, etiquette question about something DH and I argued about this evening (yes, we have nothing better to do)

I think that, whichever of us is the person who has just arrived home from being out is the one who should seek out the other to say hello.

DH says it is the person who is already in the house who should come down to greet to the person arriving. He says it's 'The Rule'.

What say you?

I think you should both go to Relate

I think whoever's just walked in should yell "hellooooooo" thus saving the need for addressing each person in the house individually

cant you just shout hello as you come in and then ignore each other like my dh and I?

I agree with you...

I think the arrivee should be the one to say hello first!

Arf. I have no idea, really. But am loving your pointless arguments. You know there's a guy on Twitter who posted about 'things his dad says' and it has now become a book and a film. I predict big things for you.....

If I waited for dh to come and find me when I come in, I'd wait a long time. If I don' go and find him, he won't hear me (assuming, as is usual, he is in his office at the back of the house).

It seems as you both want to skunk in unseen and hide from eachother. That is what I would do.

Is the person already in the house supposed to be on tenterhooks the whole time...peering through the net curtains intermittently in case another member of the household should arrive home....so that they can then rush downstairs/up the garden/out of the bath etc...

whoever is nearest the kettle puts it on, whenever anyone walks through the door.

Although tonight dh did think that the kettle would switch on by the power of thought.

see stay together long enough and you can dispense with etiquette and just go for routine

I agree with you.

Besides it not always being practical or reasonable to expect the one at home to drop everything in order to come and greet the arriver (eg mid-nappy-change, on the phone, asleep, etc), would he really leave the footie to come abd give you a kiss hello? Lovely, but it's not going to happen, is it?!

The person coming in looks for the other person, or in our house uses a sort of sonar system of "Shblott! Where are You" back and forth until we eventually arrive in the same room/part of the garden.

Maybe you could agree to meet in the middle of the house with a firm handshake?

I am now pondering what it must be like to leave in a house that actually requires you to seek each other out on returning home!

Ah, well, PrettyCandles, DH would argue that he DOES come downstairs from playing computer games doing important things in the study when I come home from a night out.

Calling out'hello' is not really an option when the baby is asleep. This is a night-time dilemma, and is very serious

nina - I'm sure Relate would love to have us. We're a blast.

Ha ha ha, I love this crazy post! It made me laugh out loud

We both seek each other out and meet kind of in the middle but we have only been together five years, so give us time!

Um, I usually open the back door & be accosted by a smelly lab & two sticky children....

But if needs be, I yell to DH "Get this fucking dog outside now" that's our usual greeting

Actually, I agree with you, whoever comes in from being away has the responsibility of letting the others know they are in the building!!

we seek each other out, what about kisses? we always have a kiss too

Dh's preferred method is to materialise silently within 3 feet of my person, and titter when I shriek and do my patented jog-on-the-spot fight-or-flight response.

I think homecoming etiquette should be restricted to 'Make noise notifying one's presence, and smooch when you bump into each other".

Our house is a bit rambly, and I tend to hide at the end of the garden so the seeking and counter-seeking would become somewhat stalkery if we had The Rule.

you could do the Norman Bates option and run a shower?
great post op, wish my relationship dilemmas matched up

I'm usually met with ...'shush I'm on a conference call'

I hide from dp when he comes home

Snigger, I get that too. I have to check out the reflection in the window as I'm doing the washing up as that always seems to coincide with him coming home and sneaking up behind me.

I just sniggered at snigger
@jog on the spot fight or flight lol!
My Dp has the same humour

"Dh's preferred method is to materialise silently within 3 feet of my person, and titter when I shriek and do my patented jog-on-the-spot fight-or-flight response."

This made me laugh so much, I do exactly the same thing, then clutch my chest taking deep breaths while DH rolls his eyes and says "Who did you think it would be?". Never fails to amuse him.

message to OP's dh

Just "forget" your keys and ring the doorbell voila your ettiquete problems is done

Oh dear! Is that all you've got to worry about?