Mary,
I agree with you! I wouldn't want to be used as a hotel either. I am on FB but wonder why sometimes. I really don't care what the kids of my friends from 30 years ago are doing every second of the day and I don't feel it necessary to tell all my business on FB. I think some just use it to brag which drives me insane! I don't share much about myself. I usually just share cute dog quips or pics or inspirational sayings. I used to be on it because my kids were and I wanted to monitor what they were seeing etc. With my youngest being 17 and my oldest at almost 21, I don't think that's a valid reason anymore.
Jacquie

I'm glad you don't like to be used as a hotel. Some people I know love to open their home, and it just adds unwanted pressure because when they want me to visit, I'd rather get a real hotel, and they constantly want me to sleep over at their house which is packed already. *shakes head*

Fake friends are really lame too, especially ones who just like the country you are in and want some excuse to travel from their home countries. I'm glad that you figured out a way to make them go away. LOL. You're smart.

Well Veroni......as they say, necessity breeds invention lol 😂.

That reminds me of another bugbear I have........these Christmas group greetings bragging about their perfect lives with their perfect children, perfect neighbours, perfect grandchildren etc. They go staight in the bin. Needless to say we don't receive many cards anymore 😂.

Agreed 100% Marydenmark. I would rather have a Christmas card from someone telling me genuinely how things are going in their life, not just to show off how perfect everything is. It does give me some relief though to know, that no one's life is perfect. Things can be good, but they're not as perfect as they seem in those greetings. They're just faking it. Then it just becomes sad on their part because it's like, why do they feel the need to brag to people about their life? It is probably just to make themselves feel better that their life is not going as great as they fake it to be. LOL.

I have a sister who does this! Every New Years we get a card with perfect pictures of their perfect family, the daughter with her dozens of dance trophies and high marks in school, my sister with hundreds of charity events and glamorous gowns she wears to them, my brother in law with pics of him in camo next to his big hunt kills like moose and bears and such. It is a three page collage accompanied by a lengthy letter on all their acomplishments from awards to financial gains to Hawaiin and Greecian cruises. It makes me ill. I dont even open it anymore because who wants to start a new year looking at slaughtered animals and listening to other people bragging, making you feel like a complete sloth because you spent the weekend patching a leaky radiator in your 15 year old car just so you can get to work and maybe earn enough to pay the mortgage, feed the kids this month, and if your lucky, have enough left over for a little floss and aida to save your sanity.

Aaaamen.

Marydenmark, living in Florida, I have the same problem. Once I tell them I live an HOUR from the beach, they're not so interested.

Mary,
You're safe with me! LOL! First, while I'm sure Denmark and Spain are lovely places, I have no desire to visit there AND I have a phobia about airplanes, sooo I would need a week on a freighter (can't afford cruise ship costs) heading in that general direction to get me there.
As for the people that 'brag' about how perfect their life ie. Perfect Marriage, perfect children, etc. they're living in Disneyland....most people that brag like that are usually people that are unhappy in some aspect of life....
As for the ones that brag about their new car, new yacht, new house and just HAVE to let everyone around them (family, friends, etc.)know what they have -in this lies' the rub'-which is what I call "keeping up with the Jones's Syndrome" which takes up most of their daily lives trying to live up to what their next door neighbor has or to prove they have more money than someone else has- like a hamster running on a treadmill- running their buns off and not getting anywhere. I've met people like this and most of them are deeply in debt AND are highly materialistic! DH and I live next to one, unfortunately! What I did discover recently is the guy pays for EVERYTHING he has done in, for and to his home and yard because he doesn't know how to do it himself! So he hides the fact that he can't unplug a drain himself by calling roto-rooter and he calls someone in to roto-till a section of his yard for a garden, because he doesn't know how to use a roto-tiller and doesn't want to get his hands dirty or sweat by using a shovel. I just shake my head in wonder....

Oh, and Noah-
You are not alone. DH and I were where you are now. We had used cars, watched our pennies, our children grew up to be responsible adults that know how to do Manual labor when it comes to maintaining their homes. They aren't above getting their hands dirty when it's called for. Keep showing your children HOW to fix a flat tire or fix a leak under the sink; they'll thank you when they get older ( and save money instead of having to 'hire' someone or because they don't know how to do things). :)