DEAR MISS MANNERS: A good friend from school works in Europe now and requested to stick with me for 10 days when he was right here visiting.
I made certain he had recent towels.
His first day right here, he flooded my toilet flooring whereas having a shower (he mentioned he “forgot how shower curtains work”) and referred to as for assist. I rapidly grabbed a towel and threw it right down to wipe up the water earlier than it seeped onto the hardwood outdoors the room. I instantly put the towel into the washer.
He was appalled, and mentioned I ought to have grabbed a mop as an alternative of placing a towel on the ground.
It’s not prefer it’s a bus station toilet — I don’t have children or pets, I don’t put on sneakers in the home and the ground is all the time clear.
After that, he mentioned he couldn’t belief my towels. He went out and purchased his personal towel to make use of and saved it along with his issues till he left. I provided to scrub it so he wasn’t utilizing the identical towel for days, however he refused.
Am I actually that disgusting?
GENTLE READER: Why are you accepting criticism from somebody who can’t determine a bathe curtain? And who made the mess in query within the first place?
No matter your towel hygiene, Miss Manners finds this particular person’s angle appalling. To chastise you for attending to his mistake after which act as if your laundry had been now tainted is impolite and hypocritical. He’s the one who ought to be apologizing, not you.
That mentioned, Miss Manners’ private choice could be to make use of a mop or non-guest towels to wash the ground. However as a visitor in your own home, she would by no means have mentioned it.
DEAR MISS MANNERS: My oldest baby is about to show 4, and we plan to ask different youngsters to have fun.
We reside in a really small city the place the customized appears to be to ask all the preschool (round 20 children).
After speaking with one other preschool mother, my husband and I’ve determined to lease an occasion house to host the celebration. This can permit us to ask all the children with out worrying about having room.
Due to the additional house, I want to point out on the invites that oldsters could deliver their older and youthful youngsters if they want.
We might additionally like at the least one grownup from every household to plan to remain on the celebration. That is vital for us as a result of we have no idea most of those youngsters or their mother and father.
I don’t want to be impolite and am scuffling with the wording for the invites. Is that this too blunt? “Older and younger children are welcome, and we invite parents to stay. Please let us know how many plan to attend.”
GENTLE READER: Maybe “Siblings and parents welcome” is a bit more succinct, however asking what number of will attend is okay.
Miss Manners will warn you, nonetheless, that blunt doesn’t all the time yield a response. And that you could be nicely have opened the floodgates for friends to deliver anybody they need — now and for the lifetime of your youngsters’s birthday events.
Please ship your inquiries to Miss Manners at her web site, www.missmanners.com; to her e mail, dearmissmanners@gmail.com; or by means of postal mail to Miss Manners, Andrews McMeel Syndication, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas Metropolis, MO 64106.
