When Nothing Is Too Much

Just in case you're ever looking at the map of Aaron, trying to find the boundary of my sympathies, I'll save you the cartography classes and mark it with a big X:

[My parents] are 70 and 72 years old. They are still working, and cannot stop working because they do not have much money saved for retirement (I do not know how much but it isn't more than $50,000). Their health is failing and they are afraid they will be forced from their jobs. They have borrowed the full amount available from their home equity loan (not for any sort of emergency, but for Christmas gifts and the like) and they will have to make monthly payments of $1500 for two years in order to pay off that debt. They have no money set aside for our wedding. And they cannot give us any money for the wedding.

Part of me feels abandoned. They have made bad financial decisions their entire lives, and did not plan for their retirement or our wedding. I feel like if they cared about me, they would have saved some money for our wedding. My mom even had the nerve to suggest we should elope. How could she so easily say she doesn't care if she's at our wedding?

Sure, I'm all for honestly expressing "raw feelings" on the internets, but that street goes two ways, and here's the oncoming traffic: HOLY FUCKING SHIT YOU SPOILED BRAT!  I'm sorry, but if your honest, raw feelings are so nakedly self-obsessed that you can only think of yourself (and your wedding) when you've just typed that your parents are 1) in failing health, 2) without immediate relief from work despite being in their 70s, and 3) taking out loans to buy Christmas gifts, then your feelings are no longer raw like "that's unfortunate, but understandable;" they're more like "RUN RUN RUN from that crazy lady." 

And then to go on and write about how her parents have "made bad financial decisions their entire lives;" wow, what balls!  I'm guessing her parents are thinking they made some bad child-raising decisions right about now. F'reals, I think parents should help fund a basic college education (if they can) but a wedding is something entirely different; in the same way parents should provide food for their children but they are not obligated to provide layer cake and iced coffees for every fucking tea-party Little Princess Make Love, Not Debt decides she needs to have.

And to think, Miss "Make Love, Not Debt" couldn't grasp why her mother could "so easily say she doesn't care if she's at [their] wedding."  Here's a clue, she probably has to work over-time just so she can afford to buy you a goddamn wedding present.  God-damn.

For the record, I really like Make Love, Not Debt, but in the spirit of making snap decisions about the media I consume, it has been temporarily de-bookmarked pending further review.

Comments

[thelizabeth]

LOL! Without reading any of the post, I first clicked on the little red "X" (oooh, shiny!) and thought that the make love not debt blog belonged to you and Jennifer. And, LOL, you would think my first thought would be "HOLY SHIT that was fast," but my first thought was actually, "So they have this WHOLE OTHER BLOG that I don't KNOW ABOUT?" LOL. For the record, "HOLY SHIT THAT WAS FAST" followed a close second (an even closer third was, "okay, it's not theirs").

LOL!

[ARRON]

For the record, our other blog is called "Make Cake, Not Salad" and it tracks our adventures in the nightmarish hellscape that is my boundless love of eating sweets.

Countdown to t-shirt...3...2...

[optimus]

good christ. what assholes. i mean, fine, i bankrupted MY parents, but i got two degrees out of it. :)

[emily]

Holy shit. I'm with thelizabeth. I'm getting married next summer. I guess I'd better ask my parents what they're good for so that I won't be grossly disappointed when they tell me they can't actually buy me a pony and that Santa isn't real. Man alive. It really is the entitlement that gets me. The passive aggressiveness is right on it's heels:

"I told her again that I needed to go and I hung up. I have not called her back yet. I don't know what to say to her. I'm just so hurt."

Perhaps a little confrontation of why you are ACTUALLY angry would be in order, because apparently you know exactly what to say to an Internet full of strangers. Therapy anyone?

[ARRON]

Whoa whoa whoa there Emily...you're getting a pony! Only A pony? Scrap that, your parents owe you at least two ponies...maybe a unicorn.

DEMAND IT NOW!

My wedding expectations from my parents:
-A six-foot meatball sub from Subway, to be eaten at my discretion.
-A tiger with spots. Absolutely NOT a leopard...I said TIGER.
-A ghost army which I will enlist in the defense of Gondor from Mordor's forces.
-Something blue...like the Indian Ocean!

Guess who just watched Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King again?

Spoiler: Me.

[emily]

Also a new puppy every week and a basket of baby chickens to rub against my cheek.