You ever notice how «can I stay for a few days» is basically the housing version of «can I borrow twenty bucks»? Sure, technically that’s what got asked. But everyone involved already knows the «borrow» part isn’t the most accurate description, and you’re just watching the negotiation unfold like a haggle loving car salesperson meets and open air bazaar overseas

A few days becomes a month becomes three months becomes «eventually she’ll get her own place,» all before anyone’s even hung up the phone. That’s not a request anymore, that’s a hostage situation with worse snacks. And nobody offering up their guest room actually agreed to any of that. It just accumulated, the way debt does, or in-laws do.