Ds1's best friend - for the sake of this convo i'll call him Harry, is terrified of dogs. His mum told me once that they sat in the car once at a beach for three hours waiting for someone to lave with their dog before they could get out and enjoy their day.
Anyway DS1 and he have been taking it in turns to go to each others houses once a week. However i'm starting to find it really hard work. We have two old dogs, which i have to co-erce into kitchen before going to school, a job which can take up to ten minutes. When Harry and Ds1 get home, Harry immediately stands three steps up, with the stair gate shut, and takes his shoes and jacket off and hands them to me! Today it's beautifully and sunny and DS1 is desperate to go to go to the park but "Harry" won't go incase there's a dog there, or a dog goes past, or they meet a dog on the way there! So they ar eupstairs playing on the PS2, and DS1 is sulking!
Everytime i go in the kitchen, harry comes to the top of the stairs and calls down
"I hope you've shut the door". He runs into the living room for his dinner and shuts the living room door. When i come from kitchen to living room with plates of food he stands on his chair, just in case the dog follows me out the door.
Half and hour ago he was in DS's bedroom and looked out the window and saw DH walking along the path outside the garden taking dogs for a walk and he stood on DS1's bed, just in case
"They escape from DH and run upstairs to get me".
Anyway, its really stressful when he's here, i've fallen over the dogs in teh kitchen twice already and burnt myself. I'm really thinking of saying to DS1 not to invite Harry round again, because it so stressful for every one, including dogs, but i think that's really cruel and horrible on my part! And DS1 and Harry have been friends for years but he has only recently started coming to the house
What can i do though to make things easier for every one? Anyone whose had similar situations that could maybe help!