ozzieeagle

Would you take in your cousins kids... not knowing them from a bar of soap for a visit ?

Just been surprised by an approach by one of my Cousins kids, who I've only seen as a baby. I got on very well with my Cousins almost like brothers and sisters, but that was over 30 years ago now.

So would you take them in.... I've said an unreserved yes, but now I've got to get it passed the wife. We've plenty of room and I love visitors and showing them around etc, never had a problem before either.

So how do I sell this to the wife ?

rasen78

It's family isn't it We have pretty much an open house policy. If you want to visit, great. But much of my family are strangers. Hardly know some of my cousins and don't know most, so not sure how I would feel, if we were asked. I think it would depend on what they wanted to gain from it. If it was just somewhere to call a base for a couple of weeks and wanted to keep costs down, then I would say probably say yes. I'm all for helping to reduce costs. But if it was for an extended period and they were just after a freebie, then I would draw a line.

eddie007

Hmmm... How long for? we talking days, weeks, months?

What are their expectations? Self sufficient or needing entertaining? Financially idependent or a drain on resources?

How old are they?

When?

Personally I wouldn't have said yes without running it past HIM first.... But I have persuasive methods available to me should I want to say yes and HE want to say no...

ozzieeagle

As far as I know as a base for a tour around Australia and fully self funded.... could be here for a few months at least.

Wish blokes could use powers of persuasion in the same fashion.

eddie007

LOL... They CAN!!!!

Some times HE says no.. Just to let me persuade HIM

Cheetah7

I know I had one of my nieces 'tell me' she was coming to see me and when I asked her if it was for a holiday, she replied, 'nope, its for my gap year'

And Im afraid I said no because we dont have the money, we have very little space, and I really do not want to be responsible for someones teen for a year because that is what it boils down to.

And finally, I dont like being told anything - ask me, dont tell me. Now Mr PP has said that he would have said the same to his nephews/nieces.

I already have had one of my close family members invite themselves, their hubby and two toddlers to stay with me for a month and we have said no.

Im afraid we had a set of rules when we moved here, we dont do the guest house thing, we cant afford to do it even if we wanted to and yes, we have had some visitors here but we have invited them.

Those that invite themselves that had no contact with us or never bothered with us in the UK can come by all means, even crash at ours for the weekend but not have their entire holiday with us.

And it is amazing how popular we have become since moving here with family that never knew we existed in the UK.

Good luck with convincing the wife, if you dont mind and she doesnt mind - then why not.

Cheetah7

Talking of HIM - he has just told me that you have over 30 pairs of shoes, in fact a huge collection. I liked his face when I asked him what you did with that many shoes and his face was priceless.

He mentioned an extensive collection of DMs as well. (now if we had the same size feet, I would taken some off your hands)

eddie007

LOL... Now either you misunderstood or HE said it wrong... I have over 30 pairs of DMs...

The Shoes are something else!

Cheetah7

OMG, I thought he said DMs, he DID say DMs but I thought noone would have that many, and thought I must have misheard him and he said shoes.

Bloody hell, he did say it! Eddie, 30 pairs of DMs - are you serious,

eddie007

Well I did.... Whittled it down to 15 now.....

Keeping the vegetarian red velvet and green velvet, flowery ones you saw, silver, metallic purple, daisies and a selection of the other boot style as well as 3 pairs of DM "sandals"

I have been ROOFLESS

Hino

Hi ozzieeagle,

Last year I had two sets of visitors from UK and I have to say never again !

The first visitors were my sister and her new fiancée ( 65 and 70 ). This was entirely my suggestion and I paid for her airfares from UK and all accommodation and travel expenses while they were here. Though I did not pay for the 'boyfriends' airfare I must admit that I said that he was welcome to come with her as long as he paid for his own ticket.

I hadn't seen my sister for a few years and as we are both getting older, I thought would be great family holiday for her and a chance for us all to catch-up and bond.

The whole experience was a total disaster, Instead of spending quality time with my sister and catching-up on all the comings and goings of the family in UK, my wife and I were left feeling like servants or service providers on a Shearing's "all included" coach trip. I know about "Shearing's" because they told us that it was their usual form of vacation and how much they enjoyed the fact that they did not have to pay for anything once they were on the coach

They treated our hospitality and Australia exactly like a "Shearing's" trip and putting them onto the train back to Sydney and their flight home, was the highlight of the visit as far as I was concerned. We had driven down to Sydney to pick them up from the flight and the original plan was for us to drive them back but after three weeks of being full time carers for this pair, putting them on the train seemed the better option.

This ordeal was followed by a visit from and old Navy chum who I've kept in touch with over the years, at least this visit only lasted four days, though I have to say that it felt longer than my sisters visit. Again we were treated like a hotel, with not a meaningful conversation during the whole time they were here, rather than visiting us to enjoy the company and enjoy a bit of friendship over a beer or wine, we were just used as free accommodation with total disdain for 'mine hosts' .

I have only just resumed cordial relations with my sister and I didn't even exchange Christmas emails with my "old mate'

Thinking back. I remember that the last time we had 'visitors' ( free-loading, whinging, self centred. tight arses ), was about ten years ago and that was another total disaster. That time it was my nephew and his girlfriend.

If any more of my UK mob want an 'all inclusive' Aussie trip, they can call bloody Shearing's

eddie007

Apart from the MIL we have only had one semi disaster.... But only because she was a veggie and didn't contribute a bloody cent.... Sent by parents of kids the kids were at school with for 3 weeks.... Treated the place like a low rent hotel ..... Kept using the tumble dryer...even though it was 38 degrees outside... Didn't washnup ONE cup... Didn't buy herself ANY food.... Just treated like her home....

Would you believe that in just 3 weeks you can cultivate 1/4 inch of green mould in the bottom of 4 coffee mugs.... Couldn't work out where all our cutlery and crockery had gone to til we looked under her bed when she had left....

ozzieeagle

My god... Thats two very bad stories. Everyone we've had here so far has been fairly good, My Cousins, this kids grand parents actually,were the best visitors of the lot, helping out at all times and offering to pay everything they could think of.

Most difficult one being my Father, but he was no where near as bad as the above stories, he just had a bit of a personality clash with my Wife, which was very awkward for me.... Sort of always knowing something better about any subject we were talking about, or interupting a flow of conversation with visitors and going off on tangets.. until my wife put her foot down, which upset him somewhat... he sent her mad though.

Very tricky when your spouse and your parents dont really see eye to eye.

Hino

My Navy mate and his wife did buy some food, in fact one of the first things they did was to visit the local supermarket to stock up with their favourite food items. Apparently the refrigerator full of food that I had bought in especially for their visit didn't suit their obviously more cultured diet.

They even asked me if I would kindly remove my beer from the fridge to make more room for their food

Cheetah7

I reckon it could be time for a new 'Visitors from Hell' thread, we havent had one in years.