Priorities and Sour Grapes

It seems my little brother is upset with me. Via the (sour)grape vine I heard he and his wife had had a bit of a blow-up with my other sis-in-law over the fact that I'm going to Australia to visit my parents - and especially the cost of doing so.

He reckons I could be using that cash toward my prospective business, instead of "wasting" it on an unnecessary trip! What he doesn't realize is that it's the generosity of others that has made this possible, not my own funds. In reality I've paid with cash I didn't have - so it definitely wasn't available for business purposes.

I don't think he gets how ill my mom is, and how a trip now is very much needed. He's assuming she'll recover and live happily ever after, that there's still a lot of time left for him to visit etc. But there may not be, and I'm not taking the chance. We want to be there while she's still well enough to enjoy our visit, just in case she isn't later.

His wife also had a moan over cash and how could I just go off on an expensive trip like this when "she's not dying".

This from two people who run two very successful businesses, and have more cash to spare than the rest of us would know what to do with (well, we probably would KNOW, but it's not a good idea to throw that much at us at once!:) ). It's a little upsetting, but I can understand their position in a way. I know my brother wants to see me succeed, get on my feet financially and do something I love. He's given me loads of advice and a good few pushes in the right direction - only to see me apparently "giving up". I can understand his frustration. But I haven't given up on my dream of my own business. It's just on pause for a little while until I know what the near future holds. I'm still planning and dreaming and working toward that goal. It just might take longer than I had hoped.

Priorities. Family before finance. People over business. That's how I work, that's how I see things. But perhaps I'm weird.

I'm going to have to sit down and explain all this to brother it seems, before it spirals into serious misunderstanding.