cats

In a lot of ways.

My parents are 80 and still working (for DoorDash) because they parented so many, requiring them to spend, and never saved. This creates a massive burden on my siblings and I, and in fact, they've 'borrowed' my car for over a year to work. I can wake up on any random day and there's a plumbing problem in their house or the A/C goes out, and suddenly, we have to find a few thousand bucks to fix it because they don't have it.

I started my adult life $3,000 in debt, having let my mom use my credit card to pay for some tickets to Universal Studios on a vacation. She promised to repay it, but only made payments when debt collectors called, so the debt notched up for two years until I graduated and realized just how bad it was. (I am glad this happened while I was so young, though, because I became financially literate as a result.)

My siblings' ages cross generational boundaries, so it's hard for us to have healthy relationships being the products of very different times.

My mom and dad don't have any organic friendships, because my dad had to work his entire life and has no time, and my mom is only happy when mothering someone. (And she has dozens of grandkids, so there's still opportunities for that.)