Could have posted this in 'Am I Being Unreasonable' but have determined in advance than I am not
This is just to let off steam, and I am fully aware that many people would wish they were in this situation I think.
Right, dh used to be a contractor and earn a lot of money. His family clearly got used to depending on him to give them cash; he's paid of his brother's credit cards a number of times, and bought him a house to live in as well (sold before I met dh). When dh's mum remarried, she needed to buy out the previous wife's share of the house, and of course dh stumped up the cash, so he owns half of the house in which his mum and step-dad live.
Now that we are in the process of getting a mortgage of our own, we need to know the current value of dh's investment so we can work out what we can afford on an interest-only mortgage. Dh's mum said "oh, I thought when we sold this house [i.e. when the step-dad died, something which will happen fairly shortly as he is in his mid-nineties] I would use 'my' half of the house to generate income and you would buy me a house with your half" to which dh replied "no, I need my share of the house for my own mortgage".
Today it transpired that the step-dad was planning to leave his half of the house (the half dh's mum regards as 'hers') to his own children, simply assuming that dh would take care of his mum.
Now - this would be effing annoying anyway, I reckon, if dh was still a contractor and coining it but he isn't. He is chronically ill and has little possibility of ever being able to work again. So mine is the only income and we have our own family to consider, our own retirements to consider, and it is frankly effing outrageous that his family continue to regard him as cash point. Dh's mum has no money of her own, and whilst clearly we would never see her in the gutter, I just find the whole situation insupportable.
Right. Needed to get that off my chest! On to other things.