If this were my 20 year old, I would feel safer having her in a hotel rather than stay with random strangers I’d never met and didn’t know from Adam.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Did this young woman's family (or the woman herself!!) even try to get her a hotel? Or did they just call around? Why did this "a close family member" get involved at all? It's not like the woman had no options for shelter. I think the most important details have been left out.

If your kid was in a tough spot and you had a close friend that she had never met that you could help you would have her call the close friend instead of doing it yourself?

This was not a "close friend's kid." Get it straight. This was a relative's friend's adult off spring.

I think the people who are threatening bad karma have no idea what karma is or how it works. Turning down the request is not an evil act if the girl had another place to go.

I would have said "yes". We would have put her on the living room sofa, given her a bunch of blankets and let her sleep. Much better than driving at night in the dark on snowy, icy roads. While the girl was a stranger to you, she was known to your relative so she wasn't just coming in off of the street. I think you need to think a little bit about karma and good deeds and what goes around comes around ...

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:With your facts? 1) young kids; 2) school day; 3) late arrival; 4) stranger; 5) weather was not that bad; 6) you have NO GUEST BEDROOM; 7) there are plenty of hotels in the area:

NO. I would not have agreed. This is an imposition on a family in a small house with existing obligations. Ignore the sanctimonious Grannies who have 24 hr/day spare time.

Uh, I'm the PP who said yes and I'm not an open door person. I have a 4 and 7 year old. I work full time, as does my husband. Do you really think a young woman minds spending one night on a couch? Who ARE you people?

+1 I'm another PP and I have two kids and two dogs in 1400 square feet and I'd even move the coffee table and plug in the air mattress for her!

1400 square feet is not that small. We have 900, I'll trade.

I’m an introvert and yes I would have absolutely allowed the girl to stay.

I’ve also hosted strangers in the past, friends of friends or friends of relatives, even a group of teens I didn’t know but they knew an acquaintance of mine.

I’ve also been hosted by a family when I was in a situation similar to the girl in OP’s post when I was either in my late teens or early twenties. It was very kind of that family that knew a friend of mine to let me sleep the night there during a terrible flooding type rainstorm when I was 90 minutes from home.

Anonymous wrote:Our family would not ask us if the stranger was not trustworthy. They would do the vetting first before asking us, so we would say yes.

The most important comment of the thread right here.

Yes. Without hesitation. We don't have a guest room, either.

Hotel
... it's not like we live on the prairie ... or desert ... and need to be taken-in or we'll have no shelter

Anonymous wrote:Could everyone please post their numbers and addresses for the unofficial DCUM free bed and breakfast brigade? Strangers welcome. Everybody is a friend of a friend of someone you've met.

It's not a friend of a friend of a random person. You can twist it any way you want.

Anonymous wrote:Did this young woman's family (or the woman herself!!) even try to get her a hotel? Or did they just call around? Why did this "a close family member" get involved at all? It's not like the woman had no options for shelter. I think the most important details have been left out.

If your kid was in a tough spot and you had a close friend that she had never met that you could help you would have her call the close friend instead of doing it yourself?

I probably would because I grew up in a family that was very generous with things like that. Probably some Catholic guilt factoring in there. What I wouldn't do, however, is still be thinking about it a month after the fact regardless of which decision I made.

Did this young woman's family (or the woman herself!!) even try to get her a hotel? Or did they just call around? Why did this "a close family member" get involved at all? It's not like the woman had no options for shelter. I think the most important details have been left out.

I think it's a crazy ask because it sounds like she lives in the area. If it was a person who literally doesn't have a home in the area that's one thing (still wouldn't ask) but she has a home she can go to. How can she not have area connections to stay elsewhere if she needs?

No.

I would host. Perhaps it is because I have a blessed and happy life.