I'm at work and can't take it anymore

[Irish1]

Mom emails this morning bitching about my brother and his wife asking for rent money, after she's just spent thousands on his and another sister's teeth; and goes on to list all her major expenses recently; heating oil, property taxes, blah blah blah, and I've heard it a least a 1/2 dozen times; as her financial advisor I already know all of this stuff anyway! Plus we are going to a cousin's funeral Friday (can't wait for that 3 hr car ride) and sister-in-law is a bitch because she didn't even relay the message to my brother that his cousin had passed.

One day last week she emailed me 4 or 5 times; another sister emailed me 7 times and the one I work with comes into my office all the time to bitch or tell me about the latest family "crises".

Every day I hear about niece's running wild; siblings asking for rent or utility money; problems with Mom's house, how her rooms are filled with junk and yarn but she won't get off her butt to do anything about it, she would rather complain about my four siblings and their families but will never say anything to their faces.

I realize this is incoherent but it has been a really hard week for familial crap and I was going to blow after I opened 2 emails this morning, I don't have anybody to talk to about this. Glad I found this site.

[westernxer]

You need to keep work and home separate, as much as possible. At this point it's probably too late, but your work will suffer if this persists.

[Mz. Pixie]

Don't open the e mails and screen your calls.

 

I hope you understand that if your mom talks about them like that to you, she's probably doing the same thing about you to them.

 

If she mentions the e mails or such just say, "Oh, since I'm at work I haven't had time to check them". If she starts to tell the story then cut her off and say you have to run you have a client or something.

 

It's hard, I know because it's like a train wreck you don't want to know but part of your is curious about what the drama is. Just set some boundaries and you'll be fine.

[Outcast]

Set your email filter to filter the mails to a separate mailbox so you won't be tempted to open them. At the end of the day, forward them all to your home where you can deal with them at your convenience.