Thank you so much for the kind shout-out. There's a lot of really incisive observations in here. That use of guilt as a weapon is not to be underestimated. A former co-worker of mine got in trouble at work because after telling her parents she would not be visiting for the holidays, they went ahead and sent her a non-refundable plane ticket.

She felt obligated to use it. Her boss was not happy about the last-minute vacation request. My co-worker was a nice person too. It was sad to see her so hooked into that codependency that she felt she could not just tell her parents to eat the cost of that ticket.

Thank You Again, and All the Best!