Living with a grown adult child in your house can be a lesson in how to be considerate of others. I have learned many things about how to make the living arrangements more suitable for my daughter.

When I first went back to work this summer I was so excited about working again I slammed every door in the house including my car door, before I backed out of the garage. My poor daughter said it shook her room. It had become a habit so I had to put little sticky signs up around my house reminding me to “close doors gently.” I soon had that “closing doors gently thing” as my new habit.

My daughter buys her own groceries and fixes her own food. At first since I was working out of my home, she thought I was volunteering to be her maid. Not so much! I had to tell her several times that the stove was not to be left in a mess and her dirty dishes were to go in the dishwasher, not in the sink.

Today she apologized for leaving the kitchen in a mess before she left for work. I told her I didn’t have time to clean it up either but couldn’t resist checking out the mess. She had left two storage containers on the counter which took me 5 seconds to put in the dishwasher. I got the giggles because that wasn’t even in the category of what I considered a mess.

I don’t invade her privacy. Her room and bathroom is where she lives and studies. If she wants it to be a wreck that is her business not mine. I am not going to nag her about that. It is only the common areas which I demand we both respect and try to keep clean.

She is learning to be more considerate also. Last night she called me on the way to the gym. She said my mailbox was open. I told her she could close it. She said she had already driven past it.

I got the giggles and went out to close it because at 22 years old I probably would have just snickered and driven on if my parents had done something like that. Being considerate of others is a life long process but it can be a fun one if you consider people more important than things.