For about a year now my sister and her husband have been living at home with my parents. My sister is 24 and is going back to school with the intention of entering the RN program at the community college in the fall. I’m not sure of my sister’s husband’s exact age but he is over 40 and by all rights should have a real fucking career by now instead of taking advantage of my parents’ generosity. I know he went to college and has a degree related to computers, but apparently he got laid off some time ago and then entered the military, which is where he met my sister. I am not sure how exactly they spent their salaries but I know they pissed most of it away on stuff they didn’t need like new furniture and expensive pets that they had to get rid of when they moved. I feel sorry for those animals. Anyway, they decided to leave the military and go to trucking school for a while and I’m not sure what happened there but it ate up the rest of their savings. (They’ve been very vague this whole time about their financial situation; in fact my sister has claimed they’re not in financial trouble at all, which is ridiculous because why would they be here otherwise?) My parents offered to let them stay with them for a while until they get themselves settled. My sister went back to school and also works part-time and her husband got some part-time school/work thing doing plumbing that paid crap until he quit a month or so ago to get a full-time job. So far they seem to be in the exact same situation that they were in last year. My sister’s car had a flat and they told her she needed new tires but she couldn’t afford to get them all replaced so my dad paid for it. That was only a month or so ago. My parents have tried to talk to her about her financial situation but they said she got hysterical and also they’re afraid she’ll leave school and get some dead-end job so they can move out.
It’s been a year and all they pay for are their own cars and the insurance. I guess they must have some massive debts or something because so far it seems like they’ve saved nothing. They haven’t even offered to pay rent or contribute anything. I am sure they could spare at least $100 a month or something. I am completely bewildered at how they got into this mess. Even if you only made $10 an hour or something, that is roughly $20,000 and they’re not paying rent, so where the hell is all that money? I don’t know how they will ever be able to move out at this rate, since I am sure their credit rating is in the toilet and my parents have told me they won’t co-sign the lease. I think they’re hoping my parents will let them stay until my sister finishes nursing school. It’s an accelerated program but it will still take 2 years to complete, plus another 6 months or so to study and take the boards. I know my parents don’t want to let them stay that long but they are also really afraid she’ll leave school. I wish she’d leave him. They don’t mind helping my sister but it really makes them angry that they are not even trying to take care of their problems, especially him. They had some stuff in storage up in NJ that they finally couldn’t afford to pay for anymore and instead of working out something with the storage facility, they just let it go. This is after my parents paid one month for them and also after the facility called and offered to work something out. He’s also got some suspicious-looking envelopes in the mail, the kind they send when they’ve been trying to collect for a while. My parents have also paid my sister’s tuition this semester even though she gets more than enough money from the military to pay for her school. For fall she got $500 a month, and the community college bill for the semester was probably only $600. She is getting less this spring since she’s not full-time but they still send her money.
I have suggested that my parents take them to a financial counselor or something like that who will not be afraid to tell them the truth. I hope they consider it. I haven’t said anything to my sister about this because we are not that close anymore. Also I don’t feel like I have the right to advise her or criticize her since I am also living at home for now. (However, I am single and it is only until the fall when I go to grad school, so I think that most people would give me a pass for this.)
Oh, and apparently the waste of space is claiming disability from the VA because of some so-called back problems. If he has back problems, then why the hell was he in a plumber’s apprenticeship? I would think that would involve a fair amount of lifting and physical activity.
Whew, thanks for letting me rant. I don’t think my language is typical of the Pit but I think this thread belongs here regardless.
