"For everyone to whom much is given, of him shall much be required." -- Luke 12:48 Words to live by! It's MORALLY the right thing to do. That doesn't mean that you sit back and watch them squander their assets. But you do watch out for them and make sure their needs are met. I currently live with my father, (he's 70 & I'm 42) who has chronic obstructive pulminary disease. He's on oxygen. I make sure he has everything he needs. All the bills are in my name & they are paid by auto debit, from my checking account, whether he gives me any money towards them or not. I really don't see how someone can see a parent age and not feel the need/Desire to take care of them, if able to. Some parents don't want help....fine, but if they do, I think it's morally correct to do what one can to help out. Michelle
:lol: :beergone: :daveandmo: :beerdrink: :headbanger: Drink a beer, watch operah and you will be fine! Ha
Exactly Blondie! Everybody has made really good points on this subject. It's not that I dislike my mother-in-law, she is a good person. She is just hugely irresponsible. There is nothing that we wouldn't do for her to help her out. But here are a few things that she has done over the past 4-5 years: When Dawn's grandfather was terminally ill, they asked us to take over financially so we could get their finances in order. My mother-in-law was doing it prior to us and many things had fallen behind. The previous year's taxes were not filed and they owed a large amount of money plus penaties (both federal and state). The property taxes had not been paid and when we took over, we had a very limited time to pay them or have the property served with a tax warrant. We found out that she was using some of their credit without their knowledge. Utilities and other expenses were being paid on credit cards that they had no idea they had. These cards were also behind on payment. Essentially this amounts to fraud and as disappointed as we were that this was happening, we would never press charges. She is after all my wife's mother. After Dawn's grandfather passed, Dawn's grandmother wanted to sign over some vacation property in Florida to Dawn, her two sisters, and her mother because she knew that my mother-in-law would never be able to maintain the expenses. And if she did, it would be because she didn't pay any of her expenses back home (which is common place). This naturally created a huge fight one year down in Florida because Dawn's mother wants it all (she is an only child). Personally I could care less and told Dawn to let her mother have it. Dawn doesn't want to because she knows that her mother will lose it and doesn't want that to happen. Dawn's grandmother also issued certain items of jewelry to the grandchildren (Dawn and her sisters) personally. She did this because she knew if she didn't do it personally, it wouldn't get done later. This also created a huge argument down in Florida. During the argument my mother-in-law yelled to Dawn and her sisters... and I quote, "That was my safety net!". Since grandma has given out the jewelry, my mother-in-law has already used her jewelry as collateral and is currently paying to get it back. Every May, my mother-in-law will go down to the condo in Florida for 2-3 weeks. Never mind she can't pay her expenses back home, she will even quit a job if they won't let her off for those particular days to go. She essentially does whatever she can to scrape money to go down on vacation but doesn't even pay her bills at home. Needless to say when she returns, everything is 2-3 months past due (because she hasn't been paying them in order to have spending money). This causes problems because it costs more money to reinstate service. Quite honestly she is Dawn's mother, but only as a matter of title. Dawn's grandmother has always been her mother figure and took care of her over the years. The really odd thing is that Dawn feels the same about her mother, as Dawn's mother feels about her grandmother. And then Dawn and her grandmother get along like me & my parents. But as has been mentioned by Blondie, we would definitely take care of her out of our love for her. And as Michelle posted via the verse out of Luke, we must give just as we have received.
Yes, and YEs. Bottom line your parents helped feed and clothe you as a child. So I think that the burden ( should it ever shift) should be taken on by their kids. I woud;n't think EVen twice about taking care of parents. TO EVEn think of saying no is terrible
