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Forum Thread
Looking for your $.02
April 19, 2012 at
08:16 AM
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Looking for opinions:
If you have a specific skill or trade do you feel it's okay with charging immediate family members for your labor/time. For example, if you are a mechanic, would you charge your son or daughter, father or mother for your labor? Or do you feel like since they're your family (and let's of course say for arguments sake that everyone likes each other and has a good relationship of course
) you should give your help where you're able to and leave it up to the person on the receiving end to give if they should feel inclined?
If you have a specific skill or trade do you feel it's okay with charging immediate family members for your labor/time. For example, if you are a mechanic, would you charge your son or daughter, father or mother for your labor? Or do you feel like since they're your family (and let's of course say for arguments sake that everyone likes each other and has a good relationship of course
) you should give your help where you're able to and leave it up to the person on the receiving end to give if they should feel inclined?
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If you were a landscaper, would you want to mow his lawn for free? If you owned a grocery store, should he get his food for free? If you sell Partylite, Tupperware, MaryKay, etc, would you plan on your mother, sister, aunt, cousin, niece, getting their items at cost (therefore making you $0 for your business)? I hope you see where I'm going with this.
My uncle works on vehicles for a living. My mother (his sister) pays him if he works on her car. I asked him to work on a motorcycle for my husband and he gave me a written estimate and I wrote him a check. It is his profession and he should be paid for the work he does.
I asked my mother to pick up some items at Costco for me (since I'm not a member and I was going to visit her). When I got to her house, my items were sitting on the side table in the bedroom with a note with the cost. I wrote her a check.
I realize these are not all items in the same category, but it's really all the same principle. I am an adult with a household and finances of my own. When I was much younger, there was a time I would not have written the same thing. I was surprised to learn that she paid her brother to work on her car. I might have gone back home and not have expected to pay for the things she picked up at Costco. I'm fairly certain at some point many many years ago, my mother informed me I owed her money for something I may have assumed she would just give me. I guess it's a good thing I caught a clue, otherwise she would probably not have been willing to do me any more favors over these past many years.
Wow, is it now three locked threads. Did I miss one?
Please take your bitchy , snippity attitudes back to Grocery and Drugstore forum we have our own dramas in the Lounge.
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What i dont get is this. The supposed fact they you automatically owe your parents because they gave birth to you. They made that decision (not you) and therefore are responsible until your can go out and get a job. You dont owe them a eternal debt of gratitude for a choice or decision they made. Should you be eternily grateful if they neglected or abused. If they made you into the wonderful happy person and successful person you are today then be appreciative but you dont automatically 'owe' them.If your success and happiness came from you not wanting to be like them do you owe them caca. In retrospect it isnt a large percentage of your overall lifespan that they clothed and fed you.
I live next door to my parents and often ask them to help me with things around my house. The difference between the OP & me is that I say "Can I please hire you to do xyz?" More often than not they refuse cash payment. So I will give them a gift card to a restaurant they enjoy or their favorite beer or something else that I know they would enjoy. I also think about them at times when I don't need a 'favor'. If I'm baking something for my family or cooking a meal that I know they'd enjoy I make extra and deliver it (across the yard
The statement 'this is how your father makes a living' resonates with me. Perhaps he is taking on side jobs and by taking on your vehicle repair he might be losing out on a non familial paying customer.
OP, if your dad did the work for you pro bono, how would you show your gratitude?
OK, it's late evening, so I guess it's story time. Sitting comfortably? It's not a happy story, but it's a true one.
I too had a father once. My father passed away in November 2010. I had to make an emergency flight to Poland for his funeral.
At this point, we had a recap team for Rite Aid threads and I was a member of this team. Each member had a day of the week assigned for their recap work. It was about half an hour on average, sometimes more if the week was busy.
Obviously, dealing with grief, but also with an unexpected chance to see my mother and sister, I did not want to have to worry about a Rite Aid thread while away. Not to mention I wasn't even sure about internet connection at my Mom's.
Luckily, or so I thought, we had a person who volunteered to be a back up if any of us regular recap people couldn't handle our assigned day. The person was... yes, Supergirl, the very OP of this thread. As soon as I knew of my emergency trip, and that was a few days in advance of my recap day, I sent a PM to her. Never hear a word back. (and the person in charge of the recap team can confirm I sent this message, since she was CCed on it, as was former Mod Slayers).
Supergirl, I will say it loud and clear: you, of all people, have no right to talk about compassion, kindness, helpfulness or other values like this.
No, I don't hate you. I don't hate anyone. But no, I will not forget this, ever.
So there.
Please take your bitchy , snippity attitudes back to Grocery and Drugstore forum we have our own dramas in the Lounge.
Thanks
The Lounge
What i dont get is this. The supposed fact they you automatically owe your parents because they gave birth to you. They made that decision (not you) and therefore are responsible until your can go out and get a job. You dont owe them a eternal debt of gratitude for a choice or decision they made. Should you be eternily grateful if they neglected or abused. If they made you into the wonderful happy person and successful person you are today then be appreciative but you dont automatically 'owe' them.If your success and happiness came from you not wanting to be like them do you owe them caca. In retrospect it isnt a large percentage of your overall lifespan that they clothed and fed you.
I just wanted to bold that. Carry on.
My sister has this whole entitlement issue, and I don't know where she gets it from. But once I started working, I started "paying them back" the best I could. It isn't much compared to what they've done for me, but I don't complain (well, frequent fast food got irritating, and I did start complaining about that, though...)
So I would often pick up dinner or groceries for all of us. I threw in a little extra cash when I would pay them for my share of some bills and my rent. Run some errands and such for them. It's always surprising when my sister or other people seem to think they shouldn't be expected to ever do things like that...
I'll never be able to repay them for all the things they have done for me, but I do what I can to try and show them I appreciate it. And yeah, my father wasn't the best in the world either. Doesn't mean I shouldn't do things for him, though.
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You didn't have to actually say anything. Your tone and your attitude says it all.
OK, it's late evening, so I guess it's story time. Sitting comfortably? It's not a happy story, but it's a true one.
I too had a father once. My father passed away in November 2010. I had to make an emergency flight to Poland for his funeral.
At this point, we had a recap team for Rite Aid threads and I was a member of this team. Each member had a day of the week assigned for their recap work. It was about half an hour on average, sometimes more if the week was busy.
Obviously, dealing with grief, but also with an unexpected chance to see my mother and sister, I did not want to have to worry about a Rite Aid thread while away. Not to mention I wasn't even sure about internet connection at my Mom's.
Luckily, or so I thought, we had a person who volunteered to be a back up if any of us regular recap people couldn't handle our assigned day. The person was... yes, Supergirl, the very OP of this thread. As soon as I knew of my emergency trip, and that was a few days in advance of my recap day, I sent a PM to her. Never hear a word back. (and the person in charge of the recap team can confirm I sent this message, since she was CCed on it, as was former Mod Slayers).
Supergirl, I will say it loud and clear: you, of all people, have no right to talk about compassion, kindness, helpfulness or other values like this.
No, I don't hate you. I don't hate anyone. But no, I will not forget this, ever.
So there.
Please take your bitchy , snippity attitudes back to Grocery and Drugstore forum we have our own dramas in the Lounge.
Thanks
The Lounge
I live next door to my parents and often ask them to help me with things around my house. The difference between the OP & me is that I say "Can I please hire you to do xyz?" More often than not they refuse cash payment. So I will give them a gift card to a restaurant they enjoy or their favorite beer or something else that I know they would enjoy. I also think about them at times when I don't need a 'favor'. If I'm baking something for my family or cooking a meal that I know they'd enjoy I make extra and deliver it (across the yard
The statement 'this is how your father makes a living' resonates with me. Perhaps he is taking on side jobs and by taking on your vehicle repair he might be losing out on a non familial paying customer.
OP, if your dad did the work for you pro bono, how would you show your gratitude?
Scampster's - I invited these folks to come here and tell us about OP and their experiences with OP from the Drugstore Forum; as I was perusing that Forum, using a search and found some interesting threads and comments. I figured they, themselves would be better to speak on this, than I would. Although I did find interesting information; coming straight from people involved with OP, was much more enlightening. So don't shoe them away when another Lounger invited them into this thread. Thank you
So, flame on and continue bashing....because that's obviously what SD has turned into. How pathetically sad
Couldn't agree more....if I wanted slammed by haters I would've posted this question in the chat threads over there...sheesh. I wanted unbiased opinions.
If he didn't ask for money for his time I would MOST CERTAINLY offer something...helping him around the house, in his garden, with his business' website. There's numerous things I would do to "repay" him for his labor...because THAT'S the kind of daughter I am. I am NOT ungrateful as you all seem to think I am. This is simply a moral question that creeped into my head and I posted a simple question on here to get everyone else's opinion on it. And now a select few want to keep posting and bashing and trying to make me feel like a horrible human being.
Isnt it a kind of entitlement for parents to assume you owe them for simplying bringing you into the world and some form of social conditioning to think that all children 'owe' a life time of endenture and servitude to their parents. When you in all honesty you know nothing of what the OP had for a life as a child.
Scampster's - I invited these folks to come here and tell us about OP and their experiences with OP from the Drugstore Forum; as I was perusing that Forum, using a search and found some interesting threads and comments. I figured they, themselves would be better to speak on this, than I would. Although I did find interesting information; coming straight from people involved with OP, was much more enlightening. So don't shoe them away when another Lounger invited them into this thread. Thank you
But my father doesn't own a business anymore, because he didn't charge people for the labor because he was friends with them or felt sorry for them. So I think your father is perfectly justified in charging you if you're treating everything like a shop and not as bonding time where you're helping out and learning from him. That's why parents have kids, to teach them about who they are and all the things they know and incourage the kids to find themselves.
If you were doing the majority of the work, then yes I think it would be unfair for him to charge you for labor. But if he is doing it all, then you should be charged. But your argument that you'll take care of him when he's old only works if he gets to that stage, he may die of a heart attack tomorrow and you would have nothing to show for your argument of repaying him later. Invest the time now and learn his trade if you think you shouldn't have to pay...otherwise pay the man for his services, because if you didn't live close by, you'd be paying someone else.
But my father doesn't own a business anymore, because he didn't charge people for the labor because he was friends with them or felt sorry for them. So I think your father is perfectly justified in charging you if you're treating everything like a shop and not as bonding time where you're helping out and learning from him. That's why parents have kids, to teach them about who they are and all the things they know and incourage the kids to find themselves.
If you were doing the majority of the work, then yes I think it would be unfair for him to charge you for labor. But if he is doing it all, then you should be charged. But your argument that you'll take care of him when he's old only works if he gets to that stage, he may die of a heart attack tomorrow and you would have nothing to show for your argument of repaying him later. Invest the time now and learn his trade if you think you shouldn't have to pay...otherwise pay the man for his services, because if you didn't live close by, you'd be paying someone else.
Isnt it a kind of entitlement for parents to assume you owe them for simplying bringing you into the world and some form of social conditioning to think that all children 'owe' a life time of endenture and servitude to their parents. When you in all honesty you know nothing of what the OP had for a life as a child.
but really who cares you dont know the OP and if they never post in the Lounge know one here knows the OP. How do you know any of the bitchy comments made by others on that other part of SD are even valid. How do you know its not a clique like the ones in the lounge have formed that she simply isnt part of.
How are your neighbor's doing Scampster's - mine are still biaotchy
How are your neighbor's doing Scampster's - mine are still biaotchy
It's her posts DIRECTLY that many have formed an opinion about, not based on what other people are saying.
From what I've seen over there, though, a lot of what they said was pretty dead on. If you don't believe it scampsters, feel free to look up OP's other posts everywhere and see for yourself.
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But my father doesn't own a business anymore, because he didn't charge people for the labor because he was friends with them or felt sorry for them. So I think your father is perfectly justified in charging you if you're treating everything like a shop and not as bonding time where you're helping out and learning from him. That's why parents have kids, to teach them about who they are and all the things they know and incourage the kids to find themselves.
If you were doing the majority of the work, then yes I think it would be unfair for him to charge you for labor. But if he is doing it all, then you should be charged. But your argument that you'll take care of him when he's old only works if he gets to that stage, he may die of a heart attack tomorrow and you would have nothing to show for your argument of repaying him later. Invest the time now and learn his trade if you think you shouldn't have to pay...otherwise pay the man for his services, because if you didn't live close by, you'd be paying someone else.