DEAR ABBY: My husband and I have been happily married for 28 years. We rarely have a problem we can’t settle, but I’m stymied over this issue. His 72-year-old mother took up gambling several years back, and it has become an issue. Over the past year, she has been asking us for “loans” of $300 to $500 to cover her gambling losses. More than once, she has told us for weeks on end not to cash the check she gave us to repay us. We were late paying our insurance because she has yet to repay us. This is stressing me out.

We have financial responsibilities of our own. We both work, but we are not wealthy. We have medical bills, as well as car and house payments. We have children attending college. I tell my husband that we are not a loan institution for his family. I feel he is enabling his mother by lending her money. I think she needs to suffer the consequences of her behavior. I’m willing to pay a bill for her, but giving her an open-ended loan is not, in my opinion, the right thing to do. Why can’t he tell her no?