DEAR MISS MANNERS: My mother-in-law's sofa has so many throw pillows on it that there is no room to sit. What is the proper thing to do when invited to sit down:
Throw one or more pillows on the floor? Move one or more pillows to the back of the sofa? Perch uncomfortably on the edge of the sofa? The last option is what I have been doing, but there must be a better way.
GENTLE READER: Well, they are called throw pillows.
Miss Manners cannot advise you to litter your mother-in-law's floor with the pesky things, tempting as that may be. At least when hotels and hosts litter the beds with extraneous pillows, you can swipe them off and replace them in the morning with no one the wiser.
Your situation comes under survival tactics, such as when a restaurant customer is served food without the proper utensils to attack it. Which is to say, ask for help and if none is forthcoming, solve the problem yourself.
In this case, you would pleasantly ask your mother-in-law where you might put the extra pillows -- perhaps she would like some for her chair? If that fails, make a neat little pile of pillows and sit either to one side, or perch on top of them like a crow on a dung heap.
Or, for heaven's sake, pick another place to sit, perhaps racing your mother-in-law to her favorite chair.