Dr. Seth Meyers, Clinical Psychologist

Dr. Seth Meyers, Clinical Psychologist

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

The Rewards of Entertaining at Home

Years ago, I lived in New York City while I was doing my doctoral training. Like most young New Yorkers, I lived in various places all over the New York metro area. For whatever reason, it’s common practice for young New Yorkers to move to a new place every year or two – take a poll and you’ll find this to be true.

Most of the places I lived were small and not fit for entertaining friends. When I moved to California years later, I found that having a house brought with it the opportunity to regularly entertain friends in my home. For those of you who have your own apartments or homes, how often do you entertain friends?

Meeting up with others in restaurants, bars, or other venues is great – nothing wrong with that. However, entertaining in your home ramps up the intimacy in your relationships. Your friends get to see you in your home environment and people can feel at greater ease to kick back and relax. How often, for example, are you are at a restaurant and take off your shoes to get a little more comfortable?

Entertaining at home also gives you the opportunity to broaden the ways you spend time – pull out a board game, watch a funny movie, or play with your pet together if you have one. If you haven’t had people over in a while, don’t get caught in the Martha Stewart complex of needing everything to be…just right. Ridiculous! There are no rules when it comes to entertaining. Invite some friends over in the near future and you will likely find that you want to extend another invitation again soon.

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