Neighbor Update

I did promise you all an update on the various facets of my exciting life. My neighbor is having all sorts of problems, family, financial, etc.

The biggie is that she has had an ongoing discussion with both of her kids. The two girls are both out of high school and both living at home. Oldest child has a job that ends in January, she had been living on her parents couch for the past few months. She had thrown a mini temper tantrum over the summer when her parents said they would not fully subsidize her old apartment. She has been living at home and to her mothers credit, her mother has not been taking care of pet cat and pet lizard. Yup, oldest child not only moved back home, spent days and weeks sulking, but also brought her pet cat and pet lizard and expected her parents to take care of both pets and supply the food. Thankfully, my neighbor said that oldest child had to chip in and pay for the cat food, lizard food and be responsible for the care and welfare of said animals. When eldest child realized her mother was serious, she was quite taken aback. She was even more taken aback when she told her parents she was planning on moving into her own apartment and leaving her animals at home and the my neighbor said-nope not gonna happen. You are moving, you take them with you or give them up to the animal shelter. My neighbor has a dog and two cats and does not need to be dumping ground for her kids unwanted pets.

The youngest child has just finished her community service sentance, still had done nothing about school, and barely working part time. My neighbor went away for the Thanksgiving Holiday, so I took care of the pets and in exchange, did my laundry. I can tell you that the youngest kid decided that she did not want to go away with her family, spent part of the time at the house (supposedly she was going camping with her friends and unable to take care of the house and pets for her parents). I went into the house to walk, water and feed the dog and found a huge mess in the kitchen. A people mess, dirty dishes left in the sink, unwashed pots on the stove. Youngest child pretty much came home, hung out watched cable, ate lunch and dinner and left her debris at home for mom to clean up.

If youngest child was my kid, I'd either smack her upside her head for her utter rudeness or toss her boney bottom out of the house. It would have taken all of 10 minutes if not less to do the dishes.

My neighbor is also is a twist about $$. She was complaining that she had almost maxed out her credit cards and her interest rates had gone sky high. She was also upset because she got turned down for a re-finance because of her credit rating. I have some sympathy for her in this respect, but this would have been the second time she did a re-fi on the house and used the proceeds to pay off credit card debt. I know she is shelling out a ton of cash to both daughters who are quite content to take money from their parents. It's almost as if my neighbor has to end up in a screaming fit before the kids take any fiscal responsibility for themselves.

I do feel badly, heck, we all feel the fiscal pinch, but my neighbor knows she has a hard time cutting that maternal fiscal string. I just wish for her own peace of mind she can really do it and stick to it.