It surprised me each time I see a child misbehave at someones home they and the parents are visiting. I have a glass dinning room table, when my husbands cousin (who is older than both of us mind you) brings her four children over, I get to clean the entire place AGAIN the next day. There are tons of finger prints all over the table, they have managed to break one of the controllers to the PS2, and then main rule I have in my house is take your shoes off!

I have an 8 month old little one that is crawling all over now, the last thing I want is something tracked in from someones shoe and she finds it. I don't care if your feet stink, I have Febreeze for that, I care that your shoes track nasty things in from the outside. I that has to be my biggest pet peeve. Am I the only one? It seems people don't teach their children to respect other peoples homes anymore. :(

This used to drive my mother batty as well. I have three children, and it took me until the third came around to be abit stricter parent. I did not want to be as strict as mine, but it took quite sometime before I felt comfortable to discipline in pubic, even in a family home.

I'm a shy visitor. Sometimes I just don't know where I should draw the line at another person's house. What their boundaries are. If there is something obvious like everyone takes off their shoes ahead of me, then I'll follow their example. But fingerprints on tables, that's something I probably wouldn't think about. I would hope my host/ess would say something gently like "please watch the glass".

I think NORMALLY when a parent visits someplace with their kid and doesn't really put boundaries, it's PROBABLY more of a lack of knowledge where you would like them to put those boundaries. Like my son's dad's mom is very tolerant of anything my son does. I let her set the rules in her house, her rules for my son are if he isn't going to break it, hurt himself or anyone else, and it isn't completely inappropriate there isn't a problem. Where MY mother is a great deal more obsessive about what he can or can't play with.

Most people, I think, are just needing assurance of your rules. Your home, your rules. What are they? At least that's my problem. I do my absolute best to make sure my presence and my son's presence are not a burden to my host/ess. But who knows what they say on an internet forum when we leave??? lol

mamasita, I think you have it right, alot of people are "shy" about it. It took me three kids to get past it, and let me yell ya - Im far from shy anymore. If anything, I need to remember to not be so loud. :D