Setting Boundries: Should you do it?

The box of nails analogy comes from personal experience. To make a long story short, when I was younger; I often felt this way with friends as they called me every half hour despite my saying "I should go and do my laundry" or something of the like, then answering the phone (before call display) to hear that same friend asking "What are you doing?" I would of course be stuck on the phone yet again without the courage to say, that I really didn't want to talk at that point in time. Then I just cut off ties with those friends, as my feeling was life is too short to have annoying friends. Years have gone by and recently, I found myself at a crossroads with my own Mother. She has gone through some rough times over the past four years and moved out to my town to find a new life (she took over our apartment when we bought our house), as the months went by I found myself always rescuing her with money or smokes or what ever, it began to get more and more rediculous and I felt as though that box of nails was getting smaller and smaller with more nails OUCH! This was to be my chance to set a huge boundry. I wrote her a letter and delivered it under the apartment door for her to read. At first she didn't get it, she just kept leaving me messages (I wouldn't answer the phone) until she finally left a message stating that she was sorry for encroaching on me so much that she was cutting into my family time and that she understood. Well I'm happy to report that she is standing on her own two feet and doing her own thing most of the time. We still hang out from time to time and because we have such a strong relationship this letter has never been thrown back in my face :)

I would be very interested to hear your stories (if you feel comfy sharing them). I can't even begin to tell you how good I feel to finally be strong enough to voice my feelings to people in my life, how do you feel?

Until next time,

CHEERS :)