Lads Takeover

[JayEmAye]

Hey guys,
I'm curious about your thoughts on this situation. We're a blended family with two stepsons in their early 20s and an 8-year-old daughter. Yesterday, we allowed our eldest stepson to have two friends over for the night. While we've hosted these friends before without issue, this time was different.
They arrived in the afternoon and immediately headed to the pub around 4 PM. Meanwhile, my partner, our daughter, and I spent the day cleaning, decorating the Christmas tree, and tidying up the house. We were proud of how the space looked when we returned from a swim at 6:30 PM.
To our surprise, we found the two original guests, plus two additional friends, lounging in our newly decorated living room. They were watching football on an illegal streaming device, seemingly oblivious to our efforts.
I was genuinely upset by this invasion of our space. In the heat of the moment, I felt like our hard work had been disrespected. I had a disagreement with my partner, who thought I was overreacting. While I calmed down and even joined the group for a beer, I still feel that it was unfair and that my partner should have given us more notice about their plans.
Do you think my reaction was justified, or am I being too sensitive?

I get that you are a bit miffed that you couldn't enjoy the space / rooms that you'd put a lot of effort into making look nice but where did you expect your SS to go ?
Do they have their own space at your house ?

I'd try to reframe it in your mind , they came home to spend time at somewhere they were comfortable and could relax .
I'd be more pissed of if they came rolling in at midnight drunk and creating a mess and racket.

The illegal streaming would piss me off tho.

Sounds like your stepson isn’t allowed to have friends round. Seems a bit unfair to me, he’s an adult and lives there. The streaming football is irrelevant, it’s not exactly taking cocaine is it.

This is weird. He lives at home but has to ask permission to have friends over, and they’re not allowed to use the living room, even though it was empty?

I don't understand
The issue seems to be that the didn't appreciate your tidying/cleaning/decorating the tree?
Why would they?

And surely it’s not a ‘lads’ takeover’, as per your title, but ‘my stepson and his friends watching tv in the living room’? Which prompts the question of where you expected them to be, given that you’d agreed to them coming over?

And how should they have been ‘appreciating’ your living room? Are you saying they’d trashed the place?

Champions league? Get them a subs for Christmas. Can't see why they can't watch it in the living room. Christmas is for football (and darts) 😉

What the bloody hell are you on about.

You sound like a knob. Very proud of type space? 😂. You put up a tree and some tinsel and now no one's allowed to go in there.

Where did you expect your SS and mates to go?

I get that you probably had in mind coming back as a family of three to a homely Christmassy house. And instead there were a bunch of lads watching football and drinking lager.

That would obviously be a bit jarring, but the reality is that your stepsons live there too, and that they should be allowed to have friends over and hang out. I'm afraid you just have to suck this up. And if you really don't like it, start talking about them finding their own place to live.

Very strange and a bit weird behaviour.Where do you think her lads going to sit with his mass....the moon.Its a living room she be glad they are in the house rather than outside.