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Sometimes it’s hard to know where to draw that line (and to not feel bad about it)

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To lay the groundwork, let me tell you about something that just happened to me

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My wife and I went out of town to Arizona this past week (yeah, I know, end of July is not the best time of year for that LOL)

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A day or two before we left for our trip, our air conditioning went out

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Our landlord brought in a technician to come take a look at it, and he concluded that some work needed to be done

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Because it was a decent sized job, my landlord wanted to be there for it

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That’s great, EXCEPT that we were about to go out of town, and because the work had to be done in my apartment, I wanted to be there as well

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So, no big deal, it would just have to wait until we got back from Arizona right?

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BUT… here’s the catch:

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My landlord was going out of town as well and he was leaving the day before we returned

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So that meant that for both of us to get what we wanted, we would have to push the work being done until a week after we got back from Arizona

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Now, where I live in Chicago doesn’t get as hot as Arizona, but still, a week without air conditioning would NOT be pleasant (especially after spending the last few days in 100° weather)

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What would you have done?

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Would you have given in and let the technician come and do the work without you being home?

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Or would you have stood your ground and waited until you could be home for the work to be done?

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The “right” answer is: it depends

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When it comes to setting boundaries (whether it’s about what happens in your home, who you spend your time with, what information you want to keep private, and other things like that) you have to establish for yourself what is important to YOU