No we don't get any financial help from family members.

We don't get any help! We were always told if you get into $$ problems [cc debt] you will have to get yourself out.
My parents do help by watching the kids if I need a sitter when dh travels.. Will bring dinner over. Buy some clothes for the girls. But this is becaus ethey want to, not need to.

We have never received financial help and I would never ask. Now, I know this might make other people mad but my feelings are that once I left the nest I became responsible for my own finances. DH feels the same way. Right now we have a large credit card debt related to medical/dental issues that insurance wouldn't totally cover, travel expenses for when dh's dad was really sick, and costs related to ds's issues.

My parents have worked hard their entire lives and I don't ever want to disappoint them in thinking that we can't take care of ourselves. I know my parents would help us if we ask but I would never dream of asking or even accepting any money. My mom does help with watching the kids but that is not very often.

I have to do the other catagory.

For the first time in 10 years,

I broke down to my mother how much cc debt we accumulated after hubby transferred to another job with a higher salary but no overtime. She paid off all of our cc debt.

During the same time, my son decided that he did not want to be homeschooled anymore and since we are not catholic, the tuition is higher-she paid for the tuition and uniforms.

When I go back to work, my mother is going to pay for my daughter's child care. She has always paid for childcare when either myself or my brother worked.

My brother was in a financial bind and she helped him out-twice so she is doing the same for me.

I have to pay her back each month and she is holding on to a title of one of our vehicles until we do so.

We are independent from any financial help!

We have supported ourselves since we graduated from college. We have worked very hard to get where we are. Along the way it was frustrating to see friends parents provide them with money and help to get a house when we had to work our butts off. Sure, we would take the extra help too if it was offered, but our family members are just not in the position to do so.

My biggest wish is not for more money from family, but it would be wonderful if they lived close enough to help us out with babysitting, and home improvement. It can be difficult when you and hubby need a night out alone and nobody is available to watch the little ones.

These are my thoughts. I didn't move out of my parents' house til I could afford to live on my own. I might be lucky there, because not all parents will let their kids live with them past 18, but mine would let us live there forever. I have never dreamed of asking them for money, for the sheer fact that when I left, I left fully independent and responsible for my actions, monetarily and otherwise. Now, the only flip side is that mine and DH's parents paid/paying for our education related expenses (tuition, books), but they've always said they would do that. Otherwise, we have not received help, and wouldn't ask. If we get ourselves in a mess, we get ourselves out. That's my idea of being a grown up.
I know people do fall on hard times though, being unemployed, etc, and if that's the situation I would probably think differently, and be glad that our parents COULD help us if we needed them too, but other than that, no.

Don't you think there is a tremendous amount of satisfaction that you did it all on your own? I know it doesn't seem 'fair' but I wonder how your friends feel knowing that what they have isn't totally a result of their own hard work. Do they really appreciate what they have?

It doesn't make me mad. I wish we never got money from them in our early years of marriage. I wish we were financially more responsible. We are much better now than when we first were. I felt we were disappointing them a lot.

Thankfully, we've never needed any financial assistance from family -- not that anyone would have given any if we had!

My parents and DH's parents have both gone through divorces since we have been married, and most of them aren't in great shape financially.

I would never dream of asking any family members for help - we feel it is our responsibility as adults to cover all of our bases. We have insurance (all manner) for catastrophes, and we have a healthy cash emergency fund. We've had a blessed life - never had anything thrown at us that we couldn't handle.

I've had pangs of jealousy because some friends of ours were given a generous down payment on their first house, and then were given some valuable land to build their next house on. But we have the satisfaction of knowing that everything we own we have earned ourselves.