On A Lighter Note?

Saw the therapist yesterday. Spent plenty of time venting, especially about my mother. Affirmed my decision to not give her money, again, was the adult thing to do. Also pointed out, though I know it is the right thing to do, how much guilt I feel about the situation, down to me trying to justify why she asked. Part of my homework for the next month is trying to stop myself from doing that, along with not giving in.

Talked about emotional things, like my irrational fears and trying to conquer them. In general, it was a good session. Will definitely come in with a list again. [Aside: I literally wrote out a list of the things impacting my life in the past month that I wanted to talk about. Helped keep the conversation flowing and not waste any time trying to figure out what to talk about. I'm good at avoidance and denial, so I guess this was good as a homework assignment as well.]

The hard part about the next month is trying to find the moment when I'm going to have "the conversation" with my mother. It's odd, me having to parent my mother even though she is a grown woman. But this episode, along with all the other times she's come to me for "help", and her two bankruptcies due to credit card debt, illustrate just how big of a problem she has with money management.

I won't give her money, but I can give her advice and (with the aid of a book) some guidance. After all, I literally took out a financial planning book from the library, read it cover-to-cover, and took notes. My mother, unfortunately, is a prime example of why we need a financial planning class requirement in every high school in America. If we did that, credit card companies would be none too pleased and maybe fewer people would be in bad financial situations.