all my children

In a lot of hostels they distinguish between people who just stay for a couple of nights and people who stick around for a few weeks, months or in my case even years. You hear different terms in different hostels but they all describe more or less the same thing. One hostels called people like me weeklies, because we would pay our rent on a weekly base instead of daily. The hostel I am staying in now calls them longtermers. I think the word explains itself.
Us longtermers usually get to know each other pretty well after a wee while and often become some sort of dysfunctional family, specially in the smaller hostels.

The people in my hostel seem very tight at the moment. They all arrived around the same time, they are about the same age and they seem to enjoy each others company a lot.
I don't really feel like a part of that group, since I am a bit older, have been in the hostel a lot longer and I really don't enjoy the pubs and clubs they go to on a regular base. Also, I just don't drink as much anymore... But in a way they are my kids.
I am the night porter in the hostel, which means I usually work, when they drink and party, so more often than not I have to tell them to be quiet, wash the dishes they leave behind, kick their friends out who don't stay at the hostel and every now and then I have to clean up after them when they had to much alcohol.
It's a bit like they are on a never ending school trip and I am one of the teachers.
Don't get me wrong, they are a lovely bunch and they make up for all their little faults by making you tea when you're sick, lots of cuddles and sometimes simply being a bunch of funny loonies.

And just like children you can make them happy or calm them down by giving them something to do. One day for example of "my kids" was quite a bit hyper and annoying everyone, especially the manager so I simply gave him some paper and pencils and he was happy drawing away for an hour.

Another way to entertain the kids is the massive dress up box. Just open that thing and start putting hats on people or maybe put a pile off clothes in the middle of the room and you can be sure they will come up with the weirdest combinations. Quite often some kind of cross-dressing is involved.
Here are some examples: