What is worse?

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JohnDB

Well-known member
Jan 16, 2021
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#22
Totally blew the name yesterday...

Not Elizabethan Victorian but a Queen Anne Victorian.

Google that particular type and see the towers.
 

GardenofWeeden

Well-known member
Jul 27, 2018
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The Garden of Weeden
#23
Which is worse?
My opinion: It's worse to offer anything out of a sense of obligation. It causes resentment. Caring for family, especially family, should be done from love.
 

Lanolin

Well-known member
Dec 15, 2018
23,460
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#24
is your wife asian

She will be going against centuries of tradition if you dont understand that filial piety thing of honoring your parents.

I know that for 'westerners' the concept is foreign but in many cases its done out of love not always obligation. You'll come to realise this as you get older.

Jesus asked John to look after his mother Mary in her old age, and also talked to Peter about this. Feeding sheep and lambs and looking after the least of these doesnt always mean children.
 

Lanolin

Well-known member
Dec 15, 2018
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#25
assisted living is really expensive but I figured the OP seemed like he was in a place to offer that because of his ' lifestyle'. I could be wrong though
 

Lanolin

Well-known member
Dec 15, 2018
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#26
How many parents express that they dont love their children and only look after them out of a sense of obligation.

Youd be surprised. Children know this and can also feel when they are being resented and treated as a burden.

so when tables are turned what is the Christian thing to do? Ask yourself. In an ideal world, parents would be richer than the children right?
 

JohnDB

Well-known member
Jan 16, 2021
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#27
How many parents express that they dont love their children and only look after them out of a sense of obligation.

Youd be surprised. Children know this and can also feel when they are being resented and treated as a burden.

so when tables are turned what is the Christian thing to do? Ask yourself. In an ideal world, parents would be richer than the children right?
Her parents (not Asian) are in financial straights because of a lifelong history of poor financial decisions and now disability from long Covid-19.
They are still currently financially supporting their youngest daughter who is grown. Paying her car payments, car insurance, health insurance, cell phone, and etc. (They cannot afford to do so)

The gist of it is that she is the only child that doesn't ask, never asked, or need help financially. She also has been left out of family lands...so we are buying our own. (They own several hundreds of acres of farm land that the families cousins are all building houses on.)

So....
It hasn't come to this yet....but I imagine it will soon enough.
It's definitely unfair and unjust. But there's not much else to do about it all.
 

Thusiserve

Active member
Nov 8, 2022
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#28
The house sounds beautiful, the dilemma, not so much. You have received some wisdom in this thread, and it sounds like a struggle between your sensibilities and faith. (I know the two are not mutually exclusive.) I do not envy your position. 😔 Best of luck. I will pray for you all.
 

Beckie

Well-known member
Feb 15, 2022
2,516
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#29
Her parents (not Asian) are in financial straights because of a lifelong history of poor financial decisions and now disability from long Covid-19.
They are still currently financially supporting their youngest daughter who is grown. Paying her car payments, car insurance, health insurance, cell phone, and etc. (They cannot afford to do so)

The gist of it is that she is the only child that doesn't ask, never asked, or need help financially. She also has been left out of family lands...so we are buying our own. (They own several hundreds of acres of farm land that the families cousins are all building houses on.)

So....
It hasn't come to this yet....but I imagine it will soon enough.
It's definitely unfair and unjust. But there's not much else to do about it all.
Gee John your new obligations,,, you are going to be busy
 

JohnDB

Well-known member
Jan 16, 2021
5,627
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#31
Gee John your new obligations,,, you are going to be busy
No kidding...
One of my wife's Uncles is already planning on inviting himself over for dinner on a regular basis. (He really likes my cooking)
Meanwhile since it isn't an apartment my wife has plans on a smoker and a grill. She is currently dreaming of scratch kielbasa and breakfast links and snack sausages. Since she loves my charcuterie skills (nothing cured and or smoked is beyond my capabilities)
It's definitely going to be a massive change of lifestyle there.
 

Lanolin

Well-known member
Dec 15, 2018
23,460
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#32
youre going to have to adjust your 'lifestyle'

also, CAP (Christians against poverty) can usually help with cases like this, teaching peeps how to budget successfully. Look into it.
 

JohnDB

Well-known member
Jan 16, 2021
5,627
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#33
youre going to have to adjust your 'lifestyle'

also, CAP (Christians against poverty) can usually help with cases like this, teaching peeps how to budget successfully. Look into it.
My wife has offered to help...and I have explained that while we are by no means wealthy we are OK financially. Even though I am pretty much out of work without any options.
We obviously know how to budget ourselves and use self discipline to keep debts at bay.

For example we had a tiny television for about 5 years after the large ones became rather inexpensive...we discovered that the 55 inch size were cheap because of a random advertisement I happened to see...and at first thought that they were selling an off brand that was junk. Because we didn't care about having fancy expensive electronics. Then I seen that they were all cheap...like stupidly cheap and we still didn't get one for another 5years. We talked about it...but neither of us cared enough to actually make the effort to go to the electronics store to get one. The effort to get one being the block in our path to spending the money....meh, too much trouble.

"My possessions are causing my suspicions but there's no proof" type thing here. Getting rid of junk is not exactly easy at times. But we did eventually get rid of our old TV. But getting the new one was just as much a hassle as getting rid of the old one and we don't want anymore purchases like that. We avoid them like the plague. (Especially now that we are moving) I like to fancy myself as not very industrious but my hobbies and work ethic rat me out quite often.

But....yeah....new environment causes lifestyle changes...but when you are itinerant by nature...it's nothing new.
 

Bob-Carabbio

Well-known member
Jun 24, 2020
1,260
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#34
Offering your parents a place to live with you out of a sense of obligation...

Or your parents actually taking you up on the offer.

Reasons?
OBVIOUS!!!! offering is CHEAP. PROVIDING isn't.
 

JohnDB

Well-known member
Jan 16, 2021
5,627
2,210
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#35
OBVIOUS!!!! offering is CHEAP. PROVIDING isn't.
Well it is not that so much as the disappointment that they obviously know better but haven't been better.

Of course we have to provide...but it's the fact that they created the situation where we need to make the offer.
 

Beckie

Well-known member
Feb 15, 2022
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#36
It's a decorative tower....an Elizabethan Victorian house. So it has lots of dormers, high ceilings, and plaster walls and ceilings....also transit windows and stained glass. The one spire is purely decorative. It flows up from the ground level where it is part of a bedroom.
But it has two porches and a back deck.

All told it currently has 3 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms....one of the rooms could be a fourth but it would be losing a den.


Sure there's enough room but it would definitely be a cramp on my lifestyle. I get up early and go to bed late. I will be working on the house early morning hours and drinking coffee and making a racket. My wife gets up early like me and goes to work in her office. Her parents have a very different lifestyle....not to mention they are both needing to see doctors and have lots of personal drama that my wife and I want NO part of.
There may be an obligation to house your parents... That obligation does not include your B-I-L nor changing your life style to fit their wants. Set all the boundaries before hand .. Finances, personal space, daily obligations. We are not obliged to enable a lazy lifestyle. Allowing them in will be easy compared to having them leave.