Dear Blake,
I take care of my daughter-in-law’s taxes and have for the past 15 years. I have never charged her for it. When she brings me the paperwork, it is always a mess. I told her I would be her full-time bookkeeper and charge her $300 a month, but it’s like getting blood from a turnip. I have to beg her each month for my pay. My husband said I should stop doing it for her. What should I do? I feel that this is driving a wedge between us. She owns a small construction cleaning service and makes good money.
Signed, Heidi
From Orlando, Florida
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Dear Heidi,
Your daughter-in-law is clearly taking advantage of you. I feel this is one of those situations where you should do everything to make her curse the day your son got on one knee and proposed marriage. Ok, consider these suggestions. Tell her that any paperwork she gives you at the beginning of each month without including $300 cash, will be shredded, and if she doesn’t think you’re serious, the following day hand her a bag of confetti that was previously her financial records. Or, you can intentionally get her taxes wrong that’s so egregious, she gets audited and arrested. And then inform her while laughing as she gets handcuffed, that she doesn’t have file taxes while in federal prison. Or, maybe this devious idea might work. Try to put her out of business by anonymously telling her customers that everything she has ever had built, collapsed within 5 years, killing everyone inside that couldn’t get out fast enough after the frame began to creak. And lastly, you should consider this idea. Maybe she’s not any good for your son, so you should try to destroy their marriage. So, the next time she hands you some receipts, return them later to your son, and include some bogus receipts for some afternoons at hotels and purchases at Victoria’s Secrets. Those will get him really suspicious of her… unless that’s exactly what he’s been doing things while she’s out at the construction sites. I hope this helps.
Blake