My house is full. All five rooms. Four adults, four kids, three family units.
A few weeks ago my friend, Lacey, moved in with her two kids, occupying our remaining two rental rooms, while a single guy rents the third. Her kids are the same age as mine, and they’ve been friends for about three years. Right now it mostly feels like one really long slumber party, but I’m confident it will all start to break down very soon.
I thought this many people in the house would feel overwhelming and crowded. I thought I’d be cooking and cleaning 24/7 to keep on top of it all. I thought I’d be breaking up fights between the kids every five minutes.
But it’s actually been going surprisingly well.
For those of you who mutter daily that you wish you had a wife… well I have one now. If I cook, she cleans up. And we do chores together and swap laundry days. It feels pretty spectacular to share the load.
Bryan even has all four kids playing a daily I Spy game in which they pick up clutter from the front door to the back door, earning quarters if they’re willing to bet on a job well done. I dare say the house is cleaner now than when it was just us.
The other day Lacey made a joke about being my sister-wife. I laughed, then I stopped laughing. She said, “Maybe that was inappropriate.” I said, “Well, only after I thought about it.” Then we laughed again and Bryan just shook his head at us.
Of course there are some kinks to be worked out, but we’re working them out as we go. That’s the important thing. If we waited until they were all worked out before pulling the trigger, she might have never moved in.
Because in my opinion, there are certain things in life one has to ponder carefully – like what shoes to wear when it rains from the sun, whether to get your salted caramel scoop in a cup or cone, or if you should go with short hair this summer or keep it long.
But when a friend says – Hey, I need help, and you have rooms for rent! Can me and the kids move in? – you say yes without thinking too much about it and trust all the details will work out.
And they always work out.