Help! I Resent My Mother for Shortchanging Me in Her Will
Dear Unfortunate Son,
There is no question that inheritance bequests can create significant tension and strife in families. Often, one or more of the surviving relatives feels slighted and unfairly treated. The only person, however, who has the right to decide how to leave their estate is the person creating the will.
Your mother may have some very clear reasons for allocating her estate the way she has. Of course it doesn’t feel fair to you—but what’s fair isn’t always right, and what’s right isn’t always fair. It may be that your mother feels that her son who stayed close and helps her out (as minimally as it may seem to you) is entitled to more of the estate. It may be that she is concerned about his ability to thrive after she is gone and is trying to make sure he is taken care of. (If this is the case, it may be that she has confidence you’ll be just fine—though I’m sure that would feel like small consolation.) It may be something else completely, but she has her reasons for making the choices she made.
You can allow resentment to poison your relationship with your brother and your mom, or you can let it go.
The choice you are left with, then, is how to respond. You can allow resentment to poison your relationship with your brother and your mom, or you can let it go. When you tried to talk with your mother, did you focus on how these choices made you feel, or did you come from the perspective of right/wrong and fair/unfair?
If you focus on how wrong or unfair her choice seems, you may be met with defensiveness and entrenchment. If you start from a place of accepting that it is her right to make these choices, but that you find her choices hurtful, you may be able to come to a better understanding. She might be able to explain her thinking in a way that makes sense to you, and she might be able to hear and respond to your pain—but not if she has to defend the “rightness” of her choices.
However you choose to approach this, I strongly recommend that you find a way to make peace with your mother before she dies. That might mean seeking personal counseling for yourself to let go of anger and resentment, or perhaps family counseling with your mother and possibly your brother. You have the opportunity to address these issues while she is here to respond. All too often, resentments are left to fester until it is too late to heal the rifts.
Best of luck,
Erika
Erika Myers
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Michelle
January 29th, 2016 at 10:47 AMThis must be something that is pretty typical for the parents to pick one child as the one who has to be taken care of all their lives and it extends even after the death of the parents. My husband has the same thing with his brother and all his mother worries about is what will happen to him after she is gone. he will get the house, the land, everything and it just feels like my husband is being punished for actually working hard his whole life and never asking for favors. But the one who never worked is the one who needs help so that’s how it will be.
tanner
January 29th, 2016 at 1:10 PMUltimately her things are hers to do with what she wants and not yours.
Dorian
January 30th, 2016 at 2:29 PMThe only thing that I would hope for you to consider would be to not harbor anger and resentment over this. Time is too short and I know that you are hurt right now, but is this something to hold onto and allow to ruin your relationship with your family? If you are okay financially and she knows that then this is why she has probably made this decision. I know that it stings, but you know, there are some things that will just not change so is it better to just let them go so that you can hold onto and enjoy the time that all of you now have left together? And who knows? Things could always change to something else later on.
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