Adult Children Financially Abusing Their Parents
7 Steps to Stop the Enabling
During my consulting and coaching career, I, unfortunately, came across a multitude of cases where the Senior’s adult children were taking advantage of or abusing their parents. There was some physical abuse, but most of the abuse issues were verbal and financial.
Interestingly enough, it was unusual to find all the adult children in the family following this path. Still, there would be that one person who insisted on controlling and making a living off their parents, while the other children were frustrated and appalled that one of their siblings could be so thoughtless.
The abuse usually landed on a single parent rather than if both parents lived. Of course, a single senior parent is much more vulnerable than one with a partner in an alliance with them.
Seniors with these problems take a great deal of time and patience to help. Unfortunately, in many cases, the damage is so devastating, or the influence so intense that there is no ability to rectify the situation.
The only person who has control over stopping the pain associated with the financial abuse is the senior person, who in most cases is the enabler. If the elder stops enabling, the abuse will eventually end.
