My husband and I recently had guests — three adults and three children — come and stay with us for a week. While we had a lot of fun with our guests, we were also left with a $600 deficit in our monthly budget (mostly due to food and gas expenses), as well as a broken refrigerator and a garbage disposal clogged with broken glass.
We are a family of four with no immediate family close by, so not only are houseguests inevitable at our place (and honestly very welcome!), but we are also frequently traveling and staying with friends and family ourselves. After this recent round of guests, though, I was left wondering how I could have helped them be better houseguests and what I can do to be a better houseguest when traveling with my own kids in the future.
I reached out to Lizzie Post, the great-great-granddaughter of etiquette guru Emily Post and co-president of The Emily Post Institute, for her suggestions on how to be the best houseguest or host when children are involved. Luckily, here are 12 easy ways to ace the houseguest puzzle — and they don’t involve having to replace half your kitchen.