I have one of those homes. One of those dwellings where on any given day at any given hour, you will find a different collection of inhabitants within our four walls. The only mainstays and constants are the two cats and the Beta fish named Taylor (who continues to live and thrive despite having been told he would only live 2 years). As much as the control freak in me tries to get and keep a handle on the full-size bodies coming and going over my threshold, some days I just don’t have any idea how many people will be sitting down to dinner…
I don’t know if things would be different if we were a “traditional” two-parent home since I don’t really have the experience to compare (my kids were rather small when we lived like that.) I know that the fact that my kids have “two homes” does contribute to the comings and goings. And, the fact that they are older teenagers and much more mobile adds to the chaos too. They can now call and make arrangements to spend an extra day at mom or dad’s house or find their way over here when they are supposed to be with their dad (or vice versa). Additionally, teenagers are social creatures, they tend to always have someone in tow and I’ll hear someone call up the stairs after I hear the door slam: “Mom, I brought XYZ home with me!”
And, the plans of the teenager can change at a moment’s notice. Just when I’ve got them pinned down to who has plans and who will be around for dinner, and I start preparing the huge pan of lasagna to feed everyone, the seventeen-year-olds will decide they are all going to go to a movie instead! “We’ll eat the lasagna when we get home, Mom.” Sure. Great. That means a sink full of dirty dishes when I get up at 6 am tomorrow morning!
I’m sure that part of it is just the nature of our family and our open-door “policy”–and part of it is due to the fluidity of a divorced family with two homes. But, if a census taker came to my doorstep, I don’t know if I would be able to give him or her an accurate count of how many people actually live here…
Also: “Mom, I’m bored. Wanna Do Something?”
Being Eaten Out of House and Home