TRYING TO MAKE MY BROTHER UNDERSTAND

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Hi Murphy,

My brother keeps pushing me to move out of my parents’ house. He accuses me of taking advantage of them, of being a failure… really some terrible stuff.

I’m not happy about living here, I just don’t exactly have a lot of good choices right now. I graduated just before the pandemic started, and I was lucky because the company that I had just started working at didn’t cut me! They cut my pay, but I still get to work, even if it’s remotely.

I throw in on bills and buy groceries sometimes, but my parents are also not pushing me too hard and sometimes won’t even take money from me. Is it worth trying to make my brother understand what’s happening, or should I just keep my head down and keep trying to save for when my situation improves?

Thanks for your input!

T

Well, T…

I have a hard time seein why your brother gets to have an opinion here at all. Did you take his room from him or what? Maybe he’s jealous that you don’t have to pay a bunch of bills that he does, nobody likes payin bills. It ain’t like anybody would choose to be hangin on at a job and not be able to afford their own place. That ain’t a life to be happy with, it’s a life to survive.

If you feel like you need to appeal to your brother because he’s your brother, have at it. The truth is, you keep your head down and you do what you have to do to keep on goin, and you don’t let anybody get in your head to make it worse. And definitely save your money, and someday you buy somethin nice for your brother just to show him what bein decent looks like.

 

Murphy

Hey man,

My wife and I have been married for six years now. We have a great relationship, we have kids, and this has nothing to do with our relationship in that sense. The trouble we have is that she really loves the outdoors, and I can’t stand outside. I don’t want to go camping, I want to stay in hotels. I don’t want to spend a day at the beach, I’m happy to go for a little while to entertain the kids but then I want to go back inside. I actually really hate sand, but I like hanging out with people.

For a long time, I’ve just found other stuff for us to do, and let her go off on her own when she wants to do her outdoor things. But I feel like I should maybe try to find something I can do with her. She always tries so hard to at least humor me about my hobbies or interests. Got any ideas?

Philip

Philip,

Obviously, it’s a good idea to humor your old lady once in a while. Just because you don’t like it doesn’t mean you can’t go take part in the great outdoors here and there. She ain’t gonna expect that if you go for one hike with her that you’ll agree to live out the rest of your days in a yurt on a mountain.

Now, I can’t imagine hatin the outdoors enough that you don’t go, so understand that this one’s hard for me to answer. I’d say it’s a lot like when I humor my old lady by watchin a “chick flick”. It’s only a couple hours of my time, and some nights I even find myself laughin a little. Every so often I even come out thinkin a movie was funny.

Find somethin you think you’ll hate the least and try doin that with her and see where it gets you. She can’t fault you for tryin, even if it’s a big failure. Good luck!

Murphy