Okay, first a brief history:
I am 34 y/o and have 4 children, ranging in age from almost 3 y/o twins, to an 11 y/o son and a 16 y/o daughter. I am a single mom as of 2 years ago, and in order to make ends meet I've had to take on a roommate.
At first, it worked out great. For year one of my single mom status we had a 22 y/o Japanese gal that was the most considerate, clean, quiet and respectful roommate we could've ever hoped for. (Not to stereotype). She stayed with us until she graduated and moved back to Japan.
Since we had such great success with a foreign roommate the first time, I called the English-as-Second-Language program here to find another one. We found a 23 y/o German gal. For the first 12 weeks she paid an enourmous amount of money in exchange for complete room and board (meals, transportation, entertainment, you name it). A pretty good situation, but a little more demanding than I was ready for. After that she was to move into a dorm.
Well, she asked if she could remain with us instead and I explained that being a "host mother" was just too demanding and time consuming. She understood and offered to take over all of her personal responsibilities; food, transportation, entertainment, etc. and also offered to help with childcare if I could give her abreak in rent.
We compromised. I agreed to about 1/3 of what she was paying before- a little less than our Japanese roommate paid, which just basically covers utilities and rental of the furnished room- and she agreed to 2 hours of childcare a month while I attended an evening class.
VERY BAD COMPROMISE!
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Here comes the rant:
Even though we discussed me not being obligated to her any longer, she still expects me to do everything I was doing when I was a "host mother".
1-) She refuses to walk to the grocery store (less than 6 blocks away) and instead eats and drinks all of my groceries until or unless I take her to said store.
2-) She continues to expect me to take her to doc appointments, friends houses, etc. and never ASKS me; just tells me when!
3-) She won't clean up after herself, collects dirty dishes in her room, her bathroom (yes, she has her own that we use only ocassionally) is DISGUSTING, and she leaves a trail wherever she spends time in the main part of the house.
4-) She has an obsessive/compulsive showering and handwashing disorder (though, she's not cleanly in general- go figure) that has increased my water bill by 30%.
5-) This one is the WORST! Everytime I ask her to take care of these things, she either becomes very argumentative and confrontational (telling me she has NO TIME to do them, what with no job, no family, and daddy's paying tuition and rent) or she actually agrees, but never follows through.
She's worse than my freakin ex-husband!!!!
I'd ask your collective advice, but I've already told her she needs to find another place by February 1st, 2005 (a pretty decent amount of time, donthca think?)
I suppose I'm just wondering if anyone else here has horrible roommate rants to get out.