So my mother is at it again. Sigh… She and my father have moved to the Middle East. Of course, despite a generous housing allowance, my mother chose an apartment way beyond their means. They have already had me pull $10k out of an annuity to cover the costs of furniture and other “setting up expenses.” Mind you, this is a $50k annuity and is ALL the retirement money they have, other than the house.

Oh, and they have two church friends living at the house, not paying rent. They are being nice because the guys are out of work but, um, that hardly pays the bills! They’ve had me driving down to fix things (the guys have low IQ and had issues figuring out how/where to plug in a coaxial cable…) and to pick up the mail. Mr. V finally put his foot down today and told me to get the mail forwarded here (we’re an hour’s drive from their house). Doh!

Anyway, when Mr. V and I got engaged, his mother generously offered to give us a little money towards it. I was bowled over. She asked about my parents’ contribution and I laughed. But I decided to suck it up and ask, even though I should know better based on history (remember this summer’s harassment over the borrowed money for the house sale? Grr.) They shocked me and said they’d been talking it over and wanted to give me $5k. THEN they shocked me further by saying they were going to take another $10k out of the annuity to cover taxes and leave $5k with me. I was shocked and delighted. Yeah… should have known.

Money comes and parents suddenly act dumb like they have no recollection of the conversation that took place mere days earlier. No money… They acted like I was nuts and said they understood they would have until 12 days before the wedding to give me the funds. Reassuring!

Then I’m talking to them yesterday about my brother, who is also getting married this year, and my mother mentions that they have covered an extra $1k of his wedding expenses because his bride’s parents aren’t coming up with their share. Um, pot? Kettle. And my brother? The one who drained their bank account while Mom was recovering from a heart attack? The one who beat up his girlfriend and forced my parents to pay his legal bills? The one who has had his car, student loans, etc., covered because he is a sad little diabetic and they feel guilty. Wah. And my mother spent the other $3k on an electric wheelchair. And she’s chosen not to work. Um…

After this summer, I said I would never, ever ask them for money again. Mr. V is pissed that I’m even helping them at all with their house. But if something happened to them over there and we were in a bad place, I would be really upset. Ugh. I need to grow a spine.