The Family Tax

We all have to pay taxes.

You know most of them: State, federal, sales, etc.

But you may not be aware of the family tax.

I’m not talking about the estate tax.

I’m talking about the person or persons in your family who seems to always need your help.

Or the person who drives you crazy at family functions, or does everything completely backwards from how you or “any normal person” would do it.

I call this person the family tax because you have to pay it. You have to do whatever you can for that person. No matter how trying it becomes.

It may cost you money. It may cost you time. It may cost you emotional capital.

But you gotta pay it.

I know too many people who try to sweep the family tax under the rug. To “write it off,” as it were. To try to minimize the tax.

The thing is, this is one cost you can’t avoid.

See, part of having a family is having a difficult part of a family. But it’s family just the same, and when you don’t deal with those people in an honest, upfront manner, when you don’t do what you can for them, it wears on you.

The cost comes back eventually, whether in the form of guilt, or regret, or just plain uncertainty. (“Maybe I could have done more.”)

See, family is DNA and your DNA didn’t survive this long by letting your ancestors off the hook when one of them got difficult.

No – it made them band together and protect their own, so it could multiply as much as possible.

That’s why, when all is said and done, blood really is thicker than water. Or money. Or bricks and wood or whatever your house is made of.

When the rest of that material stuff goes, all you’re left with is family.

And if you didn’t keep up on your family taxes, you’re gonna give yourself an emotional audit that would make Wesley Snipes and Willie Nelson blush.

Most families are not perfect so don’t expect yours to be.

And you know that when it comes down to it, you love your family from the bottom of your heart. No matter what.

So pay any outstanding family taxes immediately.

Doing so is an investment in your own future well-being.