Abby Connolly
While it’s often unavoidable, talking to family members about finances can be an uncomfortable and stressful experience.
One woman is unsure whether or not she should tell her family that her ex-brother-in-law donated money to her daughter’s college fund after they grew suspicious about where she got the money.
She’s a 43-year-old single mother of two teenagers and has raised them on her own since their father is not in the picture.
She has an 18-year-old daughter who is ready to go off to college. Recently, she was contacted by her former brother-in-law, her sister’s ex-husband. The two of them divorced for unclear reasons, but she knows her sister is still bitter about what went down.
Her former brother-in-law told her that when he was married to her sister, he opened up a college fund for her kids and was ready to give her her daughter’s share of the money.
“It’s not full ride amount, but it will mean my daughter won’t have to work during college unless she wants spending money,” she explained.
“It’s more than me, or my parents can give her. Obviously, I was overjoyed at this, but I asked him not to tell anyone because my sister has grown quite bitter about their divorce.”
So when it was time to explain to her family how she suddenly had enough money to send her daughter to college, she told them she had received a donation from someone.
Her family was certainly suspicious, but instead of further questioning her, they started accusing her of getting it from her boss. They started teasing her, saying she had done certain things with him to get the money.
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