The Social Rules

First of all, I'm so sorry for this essay. My gummies started kicking in as I was typing and I got carried away. But I don't think I have the capacity to figure out how to make it shorter, so here ya go lol... I can understand that rule about pop-up company, especially in a time when kids' lives mainly took place at school and outdoors. Kids knocked on our door to see if we were home, but it was just to see if we could come outside. I definitely wasn't inviting them inside. If I wanted them to come in to play, I had to (1) not even suggest it to my friend before talking to my parents. If they felt pressured to say yes, it would be an automatic no lol. And (2) ask them privately, because [see #1]. I knew a couple of kids whose homes were the opposite. Their house was "that house" where kids could just come and hang out whenever and the mom was a sort of neighborhood mom who never seemed to mind having extra kids around. I didn't hang out in those houses often though, because as nice as the moms were, they also were VERY permissive, one especially. She just kind of left the kids isolated to do their thing, which usually involved smoking, drinking, and you know, crazy teenager shit. Maybe I was a square, but while I enjoyed sometimes being in such a different dynamic from my own home, I found a sense of security in having structure and boundaries. Plus i was always a little weirded out by adults who didn't do adult shit and tried to be cool in the eyes of kids. (I mean really, all you had to do to be considered a "cool mom" was play cool retro music and give us an extra hour of curfew when i spent the night. No need to NOT be an adult) Anyway, it's not that i never broke rules, but I preferred to choose my moments to break them artfully and thoughtfully lol. If I was going to sneak and drink alcohol, it was going to be at my best friend's house when her parents were at work, not at the neighborhood madhouse with acquaintances who might not share/respect my limits or who I didn't really trust not to do dipshit stuff when I got tipsy. And even if I hung with them and didn't drink or smoke, I didn't want to end up associated with some bullshit or drama that they got into. Plus it's no fun being sober around intoxicated people. Now, at 42, I hardly ever have anyone over my house and I like it that way lol If you finished this, thank you for listening 😂