Help! My Son Is Extorting Me for Money—Just Like His Mother.

After a decade of financial abuse, my ex would try to weasel more money out of me to pay her outrageous expenses.

My son, however, got better at lying to me.

I bought my son a car on the condition he paid for the insurance and didn’t let anyone else drive it.

He called me begging to get the car out of police impound.

He told me he has no savings after bailing out his mom from jail.

Now there is family pressure for me to cover the debt instead.

He walked out of our last coffee date because he said I “might as well be dating the barista” after I had a five-minute chat with her about her wedding planning! It was mortifying and, ironically, she gave me my order free.

It sounds like you’re simply being friendly and outgoing.

How do I deal with their new-found insistence that they come visit me and help? I just want them to go away? I think you can be diplomatic to your family about how you don’t need the help that they’re offering because there’s “too many cooks in the kitchen,” that you “already have a system in place” or that you’m simply not feeling up to being a good host.

Your brother has just begun his journey into adulthood and self-actualization.