I've had a male friend for a number years who I was initially very close with. We were as thick as thieves. There was never a physical element to the friendship nor did he give me any inclination to think he was looking for one. He often referred to me as family.
The only 'alarm bell' I can see now was that he used to buy me presents. None of which I ever asked for. I smiled and thanked him for his kindness, but began to feel indebted. Not wanting to offend him I didn't reject the presents but I did say several times he shouldn't be spending money on me. After a while the presents stopped. I was relieved.
Fast forward to now he's fallen on hard times (relies on benefits) and he keeps hitting me up to borrow money. I was happy to help and did so for a number of months until I was no longer in a position to do so. I had to leave work to have my baby and my partner certainly wasn't going to subsidize my friends benefits with his own wages. I probably leant more often than I should and allowed it to snowball previously, because I still felt indebted to him over the years.
He's still asking to borrow money on a regular basis and I've grown anxious about staying in touch because it happens so often. I'm backwards in coming forwards and don't like saying no. I've told him multiple times that we aren't in a position to help (me 8 months pregnant and on mat leave, rent to pay, no spare money)
but the majority of the time I blank his contact as I just don't want to deal with it (I'm a coward I know!)
I'm at a point where our friendship has been soured by him leaning on me so heavily for money and I don't particularly want to be in contact any more as I feel like a cash cow. I've been blanking his messages all week since he last asked and been met with messages ranging from "fine I get it I'll leave you alone" to "are you ok????"
Would it be unreasonable of me to just block him? I don't want the heated discussion that will come from me speaking my mind. He's hot headed.