irseg

OK, my mom is really starting to piss me off. She got divorced and suddenly realized "holy crap, I don't have anybody to live off of anymore!".

So in the past couple years she has:

-Gone to school for nursing, quit after a year.

-Worked at some $8/hr retail job.

-Went back to school for massage therapy, quit after a semester.

-Worked at making pottery or something with her hippie boyfriend.

-Started training for a $10/hr job, realized it's a dead end, quit.

-Now planning on going to school for a psychology degree.

Now here's the fun part. It's a 4 or 5 year program (including summer classes), and she plans on *living off of student loans* instead of working. She lives in a dead town with no economy whatsoever and feels obligated to stay there because of friends and family even though she has enough skills at various things to live a nicer life in a better area.

Whenever I try to give her advice she dismisses it because she thinks I'm too greedy and ambitious (think of Alex Keaton and his mom from "Family Ties" and that's more or less us). She has somewhat of a point, but at least I am living very comfortably on my own at 21 rather than hoping to somehow get by on student loans at 44.

Anyone else ever been in a situation like this? She keeps insisting that money can't buy happiness--which is indeed true, but it's also pretty goddamned hard to be happy when you can't afford to fix your car or keep the fridge stocked.