renting

I know this one's gonna hit a nerve with one of my readers...only because it has to do with her.  But to protect the person (and out of respect), I won't mention names.  That and she's my friend--you know who you are.  But this is my personal journal to document what happens in my life, both good, bad and ugly. So here goes... 

You all know how the owner of our house gives us the task of renting out the apartments, right?  Well, as I've said before, there's three of them now, and we've been getting a lot of calls for them.  I happened to mention this at work, and "Friend" asked about it.  We talked about the apartment, and she said it would be good for her, since she was looking for a smaller apartment, anyway.  So eventually, Friend, her boyfriend, and her son came to look at the apartment (the one we were moving out of).  Her son was playing with our kids in our new apartment, while we were shooting the shit.  Then Friend, boyfriend, and I went over to the old apartment to fill out the application, while Son, our kids, and Joey stayed over the new house.

Within five minutes, Joey sent all the kids over to the old house.  No biggie, I thought.  After she left, however, I found out why Joey had sent them over.  In the time we had been over the other house (5 minutes), Son had knocked the closet doors off the tracks (by throwing himself into them), thrown toys at my kids, and almost stepped in one of the paint pans (while running around the house).

I was furious.  If Son had done this much in so little time, what would he do if they lived there??  How would the tenants below them react to the noise of him running around like that?  There was no way I could rent it to Friend, and I felt I had to tell her this.  Other people told me I should lie to her, telling her that the landlord said no or something.  But hiding the truth doesn't change it.

So the next day after work, I told her what I thought.  I told her I couldn't give the apartment to her.  When she asked why, I told her straight out it was because of the way her son acted while she wasn't in the same room with him.  I mentioned what went on when Joey was left alone with the kids.  I said that not only would I be her friend, but also her landlord, in a way.  I would be the one to tell her that the other tenants are not happy with the noise coming from upstairs, and I would be the one having to answer to the owner for the destruction of the apartment.  I couldn't do it, so I didn't even send her application in.

Her response?  "He's only 5."  "My sister's kids are a bad influence on him--that's why he acts the way he does.  That's why I want to move out of the apartment."  My kids NEVER acted that way, especially in someone else's house.  No offense, but that's a sorry excuse.

After that, she said what I didn't expect--"I don't want it now anyway--I don't want to live in a house where other people are going to tell me how to raise my kid."  And she stormed off.  She hasn't talked to me since.

I guess sometimes the truth hurts, but I had to do it.  I did it because I'm her friend--if I wasn't, I wouldn't have even mentioned it, or I would have lied to her.  Oh well...

til next time...=)