Person A is financially stable. Doesn’t worry much about money. Person A meets Person B through their children’s school; their kids are best friends. Person B is very poor. Her and her spouse do not work, but make money through odd jobs like mowing someone’s lawn or delivering food + government assistance. However, A and B have a lot in common and become friends and get their kids together often to play.

Person B’s situation doesn’t change after three years of struggling to pay bills and A helps often by purchasing diapers and sometimes food for them. Both B and spouse still refuse to work and have begun stealing from stores to get what they want. B starts asking A for money, slyly, like “can you spare us $15 for food for the kids? We will pay it back!” A starts refusing to help after she watches them spend their stimulus checks and child tax credits on things like computers and weed but applied for utility assistance because they don’t want to pay their bills. A and B still talk daily as they have other things in common, but A is considering ending it.

Is this a friendship that you could personally continue if you were Person A? How would you handle the children being best friends? Would you stop that as well?

(If you haven’t guessed... I’m Person A...)