"Dear Abby" gets it wrong

I find it amusing to browse the "Dear Abby" column in the Northwest Herald from time to time. This is one of the advantages of having the paper delivered at my residence. The column is usually close to the comics, so I can keep laughing after I read Blondie, Beetle Bailey and Dilbert.

Today "Abby" published a letter from a woman who has lived with her daughter for two years and doesn't have a clear arrangement. She is concerned that the daughter will not repay loans. What does Abby say?

The mother could (continue to) babysit for her daughter. "Let them pay you, instead of a sitter, and work off part of their obligation that way. But insist on cash."

Abby, how is that any working off of a debt to the mother? It's the mother who is working for her daughter. It needs to be the other way around. If the daughter works for the mother and doesn't get paid for it, then the daughter is working off her debt. And why "cash"? Isn't the daughter's check good? IRS is going to consider money-for-services (babysitting) as "income", and it doesn't matter if it's "cash".

This column, written by Abigail Van Buren (a/k/a Jeanne Phillips), the daughter of the original "Abby" (Pauline Phillips), often misses the mark. Van Buren has controlled the writing on "Dear Abby" since 1987.