Good Advice: Unwanted Guests

Good Advice: Unwanted Guests

Friends often stop by house unannounced and stay on for hours… How to thwart this rudeness?

My friend handles this most ingeniously. She goes and changes into her dressing gown, comfortably saying, and ‘Hope you don’t mind - we planned an early night.’ Another starts peeling potatoes, saying: ‘I must start dinner’. Guests get the hint and say, ‘We must go…’ she replies: ‘In fact, if you had called first, I’d have kept dinner ready.’ But don’t fall into the trap of saying, ‘Stay for dinner.’ It’s not rude if you don’t extend the invitation when it’s an imposition!