THE FUSE

I hear this so often from the parents who reach out to me. The rent is due tomorrow, or the car won’t start, and you've got to love this one: The credit card is maxed out. The same mess, different day, where your adult child calls sounding frightened, overwhelmed, or desperate. You hear the urgency in their voice, and suddenly this isn’t merely a financial decision. It feels like an emergency, and there is a part of you that does not want to once again put on that first responder uniform. Yet you quickly send the money, anyway. So that problem is now solved—or is it?