You can’t invite everyone you meet into your home. There’s a fine line between hospitality and simply being too nice. If we aren’t careful when we establish our boundaries, unruly houseguests can evolve to home invaders that just won’t leave! Here, people shame the houseguest that made themselves far too comfortable.
All stories have been edited for clarity.
No Respect
“This happened in the summer of 2012.
I was living in a nice flat with my then-boyfriend when a friend of mine who lived seven hours away reached out to me about his friend who was going through a very rough time. He shared how she lost the only couple of friends she had due to a misunderstanding and that she was also due to compete in bodybuilding in the following month, so she was stressed.
My boyfriend and I were also from the sports world and I always felt sorry for people going through bad times, so I said to him, ‘Why don’t you pass her my contact info so we can chat and maybe meet one day?’
Famous last words.
Now the girl started off very kind and seemed like a nice girl in general. After finding out we had a few days off at the same time I didn’t hesitate to invite her over to spend the weekend at our place.
Her plan was to go to a competition on Saturday, attend a party, and then on Sunday spend the day at the beach. So the girl packed her stuff and came to my house on Friday night.
On Saturday I started noticing our houseguest’s weird behavior. She constantly asked if there would be hot guys at the competition and if I knew of anyone single. It seemed a bit odd, but the girl was enjoying herself, so I kept introducing her to all our other friends. At some point that night, she ended up in someone’s car and I didn’t see her until well past midnight.
Then on Sunday, she shared how she was having so much fun that she wanted to stay for the entire week. Every bone in my body wanted to say no, but I didn’t want to make her feel uncomfortable, so I relented.
That night the girl came from the room she was staying in and waltzed into the living room where my boyfriend and I were relaxing and watching a movie. When I saw what she was wearing, it took all my might not to go off.
The girl decided it was fine to come out to the living room wearing a tiny bikini for me to ‘measure her’ and see how much she had slimmed down.
It was totally out of line, but once again I let it slide.
Then my time off ended and I had to go back to work. My boyfriend worked from home so I said the three of us could go out to dinner when I got back. Three hours into my shift, my boyfriend called me and told me our houseguest was crazy.
While I was gone, she came out of the guest’s room only wearing a thong and a bra. Angry was an understatement. My boyfriend knew how upsetting the news was and didn’t want any trouble, so he told me he was going to spend the rest of the day with his parents until I came home.
I was fuming and sent her a message to keep herself dressed in my house and proceeded to text my friend who first introduced us.
‘What the hell did you send to my house??’
Our houseguest never offered an apology, didn’t pay for anything, and continued to make us uncomfortable in our own house. We couldn’t have been happier when she finally left.
I never replied to any of her messages after that week. After a while, I also deleted her from social media.
It was clear to me why she didn’t have many friends. I wasn’t willing to help someone who clearly didn’t have any respect for anyone and was solely moved by her sex drive.”
Like Mother, Like Daughter
“My husband and I let a mother and her teenage daughter stay with us when she lost her job. The mother confided in us because they supposedly had nowhere else to go.
We took them in with open arms. In return, they became our worst nightmare.
We gave them the entire upper level of our house to say in. The mother and her daughter had three bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a living area all to themselves.
We had no issues and gave them plenty of privacy. After a while, it became obvious the mother wasn’t making any effort to find another job.
One day when they were out, I went upstairs to get something and I couldn’t get one of the doors open. After giving it a hard push, I made a horrifying discovery.
The mother and daughter had completely trashed their section of the house.
There were take-out boxes with spoiled food in them all over the floor and on the sofas. A slice of pizza covered in mold was just lying on the bed. Dirty underwear was all over the place. Makeup stains decorated the bathroom counter. It was heartbreaking to see my house that way.
That same day, when my husband got home from work, we told the mother and her daughter they had 3 days to get out.
Shortly after they left, I later heard that someone in Florida took them in and they did the same thing to them.”
Not The Couch!
“My former in-laws were horrible house guests!
I think their worst stay was when I had just given birth to my son. I was young and dumb so I unwittingly tolerated their nonsense.
We lived in a small 2-bedroom apartment. My former mother-in-law showed up with my grandma-in-law. Then my former sister-in-law showed up with her fifteenth husband at the time.
My mother-in-law and sister-in-law put my grandma in our recliner instead of giving her a bed. My mother-in-law slept on the floor and my sister-in-law slept on top of her husband on our brand-new couch.
Not to be crude, but they were not small people. The couch completely sunk in where they slept. It was completely wrecked by the time it was time for them to leave.
The worst part was when I checked my thermostat. My in-laws repeatedly set my air conditioner to the max. It was like they had no regard for my temperature-sensitive newborn under the same roof. I couldn’t believe they thought it was okay to just mess with my thermostat like they paid bills.
My last straw was when my sister-in-law said she would ‘pitch in’ for their stay when she got her check. When she got paid, her husband went and spent over two hundred bucks on dinner and drinks, mostly drinks. They came back to my apartment drunk and obnoxious.
At the end of their stay, they handed me a single twenty-dollar bill for all the trouble.
NEVER again!”
Charity Case
“One of my dad’s friends came from a different state to do work on a construction project. He asked my dad if he could stay at his house for a few days until he could find a rental.
Well, a few days turned into months.
During the entire stay, my dad’s friend bragged about wealthy he was. His friend even went so far as to talk down on my dad for making less than him.
In one of his obnoxious rants, he boasted about how he made more than both of my parents’ incomes combined.
I was livid when my mom told me. I asked her why she and my father hadn’t charged him rent or simply asked him to leave.
Now my dad is extremely nice and has a habit of avoiding confrontation. My mom hated how they were being treated after being kind, but she didn’t want to be the bad guy.
All of my siblings argued for my parents to step up and stop allowing their ‘friend’ to take advantage of their empathy and naivety.
Eventually, my mother finally told the guy off.
Seeing he was no longer welcomed, he moved out that same weekend.”
