Dear Prudence,
My younger sister recently got out of a bad relationship, and she has since spiraled out of control. She refuses to work, so my parents pay all her bills. She goes out and parties all the time, and she does everything on my parents’ dime. My parents are afraid of her, and I am too. If you tell her something she doesn’t want to hear, she becomes incredibly cruel. A couple of weeks ago, she let herself into my house (she had a key) and took my work laptop because she “needed it.” Then I noticed that a full bottle of Vicodin that I had left over from a recent surgery was empty. I’ve tried for years to help my sister, and none of it has worked. In the meantime, I have felt that because of my sister’s issues, there was never enough room for me and my needs. My question is: What can I do to make my parents understand that she has real issues that aren’t being solved by our enabling her? And should I cut my sister out of my life at this point? I feel like she’s a stranger to me, and I’m tired of the turmoil.