Friends and visiting..

[Irish Luck]

Do you expect your close friends to phone you and arrange a time to visit or can they turn up unexpectedly?

We have always had a policy that our door is always open to our friends and that they could call around at any time within reason of course..(not before 8am or after 10pm).

Since moving away from our group of friends I have found that this is not the done thing where we live now, I'm curious to know what others do.

[MrsPeacefrog]

I am not a massive fan of the drop in, but am not against it either. I do prefer to know if someone is coming, but we do get pop in's from close friends which is :aok: too.

We live far enough away now that we live near a very small handful of friends the rest are so far away it has to be pre-booked because they don't want to do the drive and find us not home :lol:

[Irish Luck]

ETA: Does your signifcant other feel the same way?

DH is probably more OK with all friends dropping by, where as I have a select few that I would rather didn't, and DH doesn't mind being the one to drop in on people and I prefer to ring ahead.

[MrsPeacefrog]

We never drop in on other people, as we just feel that we owe them a call first incase they are busy or are in the middle of something.

Tony feels the same as me, we prefer not to have the drop in, but if it happens he doesn't stress over it.

[Cami]

I am not a big fan of the drop in because our house always has toys strewn around and I'm usually looking pretty sloppy. If DH is home, he's usually half dressed, with his clothes from work draped over living room furniture. :shuffle:

Even with my old best friends, we'd call each other first but we knew to ignore the state of each other's homes.

[Jayne]

We never drop in on others and have an open policy to only one set of friends. (Geoff and Stacy). I don't mind phone calls whenever but I don't need someone droping in when I am not aware. I like to be able to straighten up.

DH's Uncle loves to just pop in and he even walks in..no bell. It drives me mad. DH doesn't like it either but what do you do :dunno:

[Hannabanana]

We have friends call and drop in when they're around the corner but we never just drop in on anyone.

[Dennis]

I don't like drop-ins at all and we'd never drop in on someone else.

[Brandi Jo]

There is a core group of friends that I don't mind if they drop in. They've seen my house at it's worst, and me at my worst. Most people, I'd rather have call first though.

[Karri]

Our neighbors can drop in anytime. They've seen me in my jammies more often than not :lol: During the day, any of my mommy friends can drop in (and I on them) and we all reserve the right to turn away....this is a rule that we talked about. But anyone else I really expect to phone. And typically, they do.

[sabrina]

I don't drop in on anyone at any time. I just don't like to do it. Most don't drop in on us either.

[Girlo]

I don't mind it....but anyone who does that has to accept that I might be stinky or sloppy or my house might be a wreck. :awink: If we're just hanging around the house, we don't always get dressed or whatever, so I don't feel obligated to do so "just in case".

I always call other people before going over, mostly to make sure they're home and not in the middle of something (up for company). :) Our house is mostly out of the way for most of our family and friends, so visits are preplanned from them.

[laurie]

Don't like the drop in, don't do the drop in. But I must say that my best friend who lives 30 minutes from me, has such an open door policy that you will be sitting there visiting and someone will just walk on in! They actually know it's someone they don't know well if they hear a knock! :lol: And honestly, I think it's kinda creepy and kinda homey at the same time. But I would NEVER be comfortable with that!

[Sandy]

I am a huge anti-drop in person. I hate it when people do this to me. Hate is not too strong a word. :lol: Not just b/c me or my house may be a wreck, but I have to be in the mood to socialize. If I am in my house doing in my house things, I don't like to be surprised w/ a visitor.

[LISA]

I hate drop in visits unless it's my sister if it's my fil then I'm running around like a chicken with no head throwing shit down the basement stairs :blush: :lol: my husband though is BIG on popping in on people and I refuse to get out of the car until the person we are popping in on agree's it's ok for us to come in :lol: I'm totally ok with being turned away but we never have been..oh wait..we have once by his best friend but they were all sick so that was way ok.

[Eva]

I don't mind people dropping in but it is rare that this happens since all our friends live at least 15 minutes away from us. At times, they will call us from their cells if they are in the area before dropping in. We generally don't drop in on people either. I always find it funny since growing up everyone dropped in on everyone else and it was never an issue.

[Stacey]

I am a huge anti-drop in person. I hate it when people do this to me. Hate is not too strong a word. :lol: Not just b/c me or my house may be a wreck, but I have to be in the mood to socialize. If I am in my house doing in my house things, I don't like to be surprised w/ a visitor.
Hallelujah! I feel exactly the same way.

[Melissa]

We don't live close enough for anyone to risk a drop in :lol: When we were in CT, I'd drop in on my lower neighbor sometimes, but I think that is a bit different than driving across town to see someone.

[Clare]

I'm very anti-pop-in. I don't do it to other people and I don't like having it done to me.

We have one set of friends who do it often, it drives me crazy. They live 1.5hrs away, so if they're in the area, they just pop-in. It's often when we're just sitting down to dinner :rolleyes: Once they popped-in late at night after we were all in bed! Drives me mad, but he is Alex's best friend from high school and Alex won't tell him to stop doing it :dunno:

[Cazzle]

It depends on who it is. There are some friends who are always, always welcome no matter what because I'm just thrilled to see them, and there are others who, while welcome, I would prefer to have been warned to expect.

There's one friend in particular who just calls around when the mood takes her, and I wish she'd ring first. She's got kids, and my house isn't childproofed (why would it be?). Ten minutes warning that they are on their way would give me time to make sure the place is ready for the kids. My cats hate her children (the kids always chase the cats around), so I'd have liked to have been able to close the cats in another part of the house where the kids wouldn't disturb them. It would be better for her too - instead of me being flustered, running around trying to save my cats, remove anything that her kids could break or be hurt by and close doors to rooms I don't want them going in, I could have a DVD playing for the kids and be sitting with her talking. Last time they came over, I had to yell at the kids to keep out of my bedroom, ask the five year old to stop using the scoop to stir and play with the kitty litter :dead: and the whole time I had the three year old whining at me to put a game on for them to play. One quick phone call would have solved all of those problems and made the visit go smoother.

[MrsPeacefrog]

I actually have an ex neighbour who was always welcome to come over whenever when she was living next door (we often spent time at each others houses while our husbands were at work) it didn't bother me because if I was busy or wasn't in the mood I could just say "not today" and she would walk the 10 metres back to her front door, but now she acts like she is still my neighbour and drives over and pops in just as often and it drives me insane because I feel guilty to turn her away when she has driven over, rather than turning her away to her house next door!

[Brandi]

Our neighbors might drop in to see if we can come out and play and we might do the same to them (ones with kids OF COURSE). But, I never drop in on anyone that I have to drive to! A neighbor asking for you to come out to play is one thing, but a friend that wants to come in is another. My house tends to be pretty messy even when people come over, but I like a little time to tidy up a bit. I wouldn't turn a friend away and probably wouldn't mind too much, but my friends just don't do it. I would probably be out of the house anyway - we're never home it seems!

[indie24]

There are some friends that I have no worries about them just turning up. Others I prefer to call.
I like to call and make sure its ok.

[Martian Lullaby]

I expect EVERYBODY to call first. Friends, family, everybody. If Ed McMahon is bringing me a big check, I'd expect a call before he showed up at my door.