The Hosting Inclination

The earliest memories I have include my parents inviting tons of people over to our home on a regular basis. It was the best training grounds for my brother and me in terms of hosting people. Even my friend Y, who has a Hospitality degree from Cornell, says that I didn't have to go to an Ivy League school to acquire the skill set to take care of people in a thoughtful and considerate manner. For sure, she is being overly generous with her words. However, if I do have such a skill set, I would credit my parents for it entirely and I am sure my brother would agree with me.

December was a crazy month. We hosted 2 parties in our home - one for friends and one for family. We also attended 3 parties - one by friends and two by family. Tomorrow, ASid is hosting a bunch of friends at our home. This is not his first time; however, this is the first time he is screening a special movie for his friends. He already made us watch it as a family. For some reason, this movie means more to ASid than all the movies he has watched in recent times. It is in one of his heritage languages - the paternal one he has been learning for the last 5-6 years. Obviously, there are English subtitles. When I watched the movie a few weeks ago, it was not only a shared experience with my child but it was also an opportunity to have a dialogue with him about his interests. Why did this movie touch his heart in a way that he wants to share it with all his near and dear ones?!

Tomorrow, he has close to 10 friends who will be at our home. I haven't met half of them ever before. They are all his high school friends. ASid's job is to literally be the best host possible in his age category and uphold his family's name. OK! I am kidding. His job is to make sure he is taking care of his friends when they are indulging him with their time and consideration. To that extent, we did a grocery run a few hours ago based on snack and non-alcoholic drink requests from his friends.

ASid is coming along quite nicely. In the last year and a bit, he has been mostly responsible for planning and organizing these "hangouts". I merely provide guidance. Most of his friends' parents have kids over if it is a birthday or if it involves doing school work as a group. Most parents, in general, tend to make intelligent choices! However, ASid has learnt to appreciate these opportunities to invite his friends over for no good reasons.

And I am glad I get an opportunity to pass along some skills I picked from the generation before mine to the next generation. But then again, ASid might just have a natural inclination for hosting!

An Aside: Since I mentioned my friend Y, she has a severe OCD about having people in her home. So, it usually works out that her family hangs out mostly at our home. And that is totally fine with me even though it bothers them once in a while. I don't believe as friends we need to keep track of who hosted whom how many times. Given that bent, I would want ASid to host without having any expectations of any reciprocation from any of his friends. We must do what we do because we want to do it and it makes us happy! Period!