neighbor asking to borrow money

amother

Mon, Oct 14 2013, 6:32 pm

my brother used to do this when he was that age.
he asked all my parents friends for a loan. the amounts got bigger and bigger. he almost never paid them back.
its now 20 yrs later and he still owes money to most of the people I know.

some of the friends he owed money to came to my parents to get paid back. my parents were shocked that he had borrowed money. they had no idea all that time.

be very careful.

FranticFrummie

Mon, Oct 14 2013, 9:43 pm

Kugglegirl wrote:

$40 is not so much money to get into any kind of real trouble with. I would lend it to the kid. Maybe ask what it's for.

Probably the kid wants to go play paint-ball with some other boys, or he needs to buy a new sweat shirt, or buy a sefer his father doesn't have for mishmar but forgot to get money from his parents before they went out.

When I was a teen, I could get into all kinds of trouble with $40. Right now, by me $40 is a huge amount of money, and can make the difference in what I can afford to serve for Shabbos, or whether or not the electricity gets cut off. I would be furious to find out that someone was up to shenanigans at my expense!

I would never, ever led my DD ask anyone for money, either. She knows she can earn money if she needs it badly enough, or she can go without whatever it is she thinks she "needs".

If a 14yo boy came around to borrow money from me, I'd pay him to mow my lawn for a few weeks - WITH his parent's permission, of course.

greenfire

Tue, Oct 15 2013, 9:50 am

imasinger wrote:

What if you knew for a fact that there was an abusive parent, and he wanted to borrow the money to get to a safe place?

this brings up a very important point ... if an abusive parent gets wind of his asking - they could take it out on him ... important to avoid this ... even if he weren't going to a safe place but needed pizza or dinner outside of the crazy house ... kwim