[groo]

Originally Posted by ModernWarrior

I'm not looking for sympathy or anything by this thread, I need some advice on what to do.

I lived with my mom for about 13 years before moving away from her to live with my dad. Well I only lived with him for close to 2 years. Things got bad there, fast My parents have been divorced since I was a baby.

Well now my mom has since remarried and I am living with her and my stepdad here in Vegas. The problem is, my stepdad has a gambling problem, and it is destroying the marriage. My stepdad is gone sometimes for 2-5 days at a time, and keeps piling up the debt. It is making my mom's life hell. She had to get a 2nd job to pay debts caused by him. She wasn't able to work there for long because she has a bad back not could not handle the physical stress of two jobs.

I have a younger sister, and I also have an older brother who looks after me, but pretty much stays out of everything else, because he works odd hours and whatnot. The gambling got to a point where my stepdad had stolen my brothers credit-card while he was asleep, and attempted to take all he had. He got off with about a grand. He payed back most of it (not that it helps). My mom wants to leave him, but does not know what to do. As of now he has been gone for like 3 days, and his credit-card company has called the house looking for him.

Money is a big part of why my mom does not leave him. She cannot afford the house we just moved into by herself, and neither can my stepdad if we left him the house. She does not want her credit to be ruined like his is right now due to unpaid loans and such.

Without someone to help her through what she and my family are going through, she keeps looking to me for support. I don't know what she would do without me. She cries at work all the time, and is incredibly stressed at home. She doesn't sleep because she is so stressed. It is getting very hard on myself being only 16 (17 in a week), and giving her support with all these 'adult' problems. Right now I am doing every possible thing that I can to give her one less thing to worry about. She was crying because she thought I would be upset we did not do anything for the fourth of July. I could really care less it is just another day to me, but she was upset.

So I turn to someone else for advice. My fellow sherdoggers. What would you do if you were in my situation, how would you handle. What your advice you would give to your parent if you were in my shoes?

Sell the house.