Boundaries are how you stay in people’s lives without resenting them.

Resentment is what builds when you keep giving past the point you wanted to stop, and it is corrosive because it arrives quietly and points at people you love. A limit stated early prevents it. That is the part most often missed: a limit is not a way of pushing somebody off, it is the thing that lets you stay close without a slow grudge forming underneath.

Find where you have been quietly overspending, then say the smaller version of what you can do. I can help Sunday but not Saturday. Said in time, that keeps the relationship intact.