Ask Amy: Grandparents treated like toddlers, act like teens
— Desperate
Dear Desperate: My suggestion is that your daughter should get tested, and if she tests negative for the virus, she should leave her grandparents’ household, leaving their car keys behind.
You don’t mention that your parents are needy or impaired (other than their judgment), so I’m assuming that they simply have minimal regard for their health or the health of others.
As the nation faces a dramatic surge of the virus, surely they know by now that if either one of them gets sick, they put all of their contacts at great risk, and that their hospital stay will be a very lonely one.
You and your daughter should make sure that they have all of the basic knowledge and tools for cutting down their risk: Hand-washing and sanitizer in the car and at home, masks up when they enter a building or encounter anyone, and maintaining appropriate distance when they are visiting with others. (Where I live, there is a mandatory mask mandate inside all public buildings, which really cuts out the guesswork).
You are treating your parents like toddlers, and they are responding like teenagers, so stop. This would mean that you won’t be able to spend time with them until the all-clear, but that is a consequence of the choices they are making.
Dear Amy: My brother and his wife have been borrowing money from my father.
They have not paid him back, and now they are not speaking to each other.
When I visit my father, he will ask me if I have heard anything from my brother.
My father expects me to say something to my brother about paying him back, but I don’t want to be the middleman.
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