Surprise!
This post requires a little bit of backstory.
My wife is origininally from Texas, but moved to Indiana in order to be with me. After a while, we started to get really burned out in the area and she was missing her family, so she found a job in Texas and we moved.
For about 2 years, I guess, we lived with her parents in their huge, mostly empty house. They had raised 4 kids, all of whom had moved out by that point. They were happy to have us, and we were happy to not be homeless. Eventually, though, it was time for us to move on, and they once again helped us out by putting a down payment on the house we currently live in.
Since then, her dad has been laid off, picked up another job, and subsequently lost that one. Her mom had to take a job to make ends meet, but that's going to be over in a few months. That big empty house is slowly draining them between mortgage, insurance, maintenance, and other bills. So they finally decided it's time to sell. This wasn't an easy decision, given the memories, but it's a necessary one.
But here's the twist: her dad is still unemployed, and has started to expand his job search to include places outside of the Dallas area. What this means is that they don't want to buy another house, because they don't know if they're just going to have to turn around and sell that one. But regardless, they have to sell the current one.
Yesterday morning, her mom casually informed us of all of this, adding "So we'll be moving in with you." She was not joking. And she honestly seemed offended when we did not jump at this opportunity excitedly, saying she expected we'd be more open to it because of everything they did for us.
Even after having all day yesterday to process this, I still don't really know what to say. There's just do much running through my head. I'm extremely grateful for what they did for us, but the situation is very different. We were two people moving from an apartment to a big empty house. They'd be two people with a lifetime of stuff moving into a much smaller space. It's not even close to the same situation!
We don't intend to let them be homeless, by any means, but the scenario laid out before us (which was presented as fact, rather than a question) is all kinds of impractical. So right now I'm feeling angry, guilty, confused, and probably a handful of other emotions. I don't know what to do, or how. I don't want to seem ungrateful, but I feel like they need to be realistic here.
On the upside, I have to say that I have the most amazing friends in the world. Within an hour of posting a vague "I'm upset" type message on Facebook, I had four separate friends message me to see if I was okay and/or offer their support. That means more to me than they probably know. I am truly lucky to have such wonderful people in my life.
My wife is origininally from Texas, but moved to Indiana in order to be with me. After a while, we started to get really burned out in the area and she was missing her family, so she found a job in Texas and we moved.
For about 2 years, I guess, we lived with her parents in their huge, mostly empty house. They had raised 4 kids, all of whom had moved out by that point. They were happy to have us, and we were happy to not be homeless. Eventually, though, it was time for us to move on, and they once again helped us out by putting a down payment on the house we currently live in.
Since then, her dad has been laid off, picked up another job, and subsequently lost that one. Her mom had to take a job to make ends meet, but that's going to be over in a few months. That big empty house is slowly draining them between mortgage, insurance, maintenance, and other bills. So they finally decided it's time to sell. This wasn't an easy decision, given the memories, but it's a necessary one.
But here's the twist: her dad is still unemployed, and has started to expand his job search to include places outside of the Dallas area. What this means is that they don't want to buy another house, because they don't know if they're just going to have to turn around and sell that one. But regardless, they have to sell the current one.
Yesterday morning, her mom casually informed us of all of this, adding "So we'll be moving in with you." She was not joking. And she honestly seemed offended when we did not jump at this opportunity excitedly, saying she expected we'd be more open to it because of everything they did for us.
Even after having all day yesterday to process this, I still don't really know what to say. There's just do much running through my head. I'm extremely grateful for what they did for us, but the situation is very different. We were two people moving from an apartment to a big empty house. They'd be two people with a lifetime of stuff moving into a much smaller space. It's not even close to the same situation!
We don't intend to let them be homeless, by any means, but the scenario laid out before us (which was presented as fact, rather than a question) is all kinds of impractical. So right now I'm feeling angry, guilty, confused, and probably a handful of other emotions. I don't know what to do, or how. I don't want to seem ungrateful, but I feel like they need to be realistic here.
On the upside, I have to say that I have the most amazing friends in the world. Within an hour of posting a vague "I'm upset" type message on Facebook, I had four separate friends message me to see if I was okay and/or offer their support. That means more to me than they probably know. I am truly lucky to have such wonderful people in my life.