The two or three days around a visit are a quiet test of two people's grace. Whether you are the one arriving with a bag or the one making up the guest bed, a stay under the same roof asks something of both of you. And most of the visits that go sideways do not go sideways over anything dramatic. They go sideways over small, unspoken things that nobody thought to name. So let's name them. Here is the whole art of houseguest etiquette, both sides of it, because a good visit is

There is a specific look a parent gives you when they hand your kid back the morning after a sleepover. The smile that is slightly too tight. The “they were great” that lands a beat too quickly. That is the look that means your kid was not actually great. They were not bad enough to ban from future invites either. They were somewhere in between. They were under-prepared. If you have caught that look, you are not alone. Most kids walk into their first dozen sleepovers without