s/o How do you feel about being the professional in the fam?

Ha! I started out my career in IT, so friends and sometimes family sought my expertise. I didn't mind as long as it didn't take up more than say 15 minutes of my time.

Now that I'm in project management, no one seems to need my help

I'm an accountant so, yeah, quite popular around this time of year.

I don't mind it so much, though. Since I work in audit, the only personal taxes I do are mine and those of my friends and family.

I thought the same thing when I saw that thread. I know the spirit it was intended, but if you are the certain professional and people are always calling on you, it pretty much sucks. Everyone thinks you should do the service for free on your time off. "It will just take you a minute" uh, no it won't. You have no idea what all this entails. That's kind of why you are asking me/us/dh.

I totally agree. It's fine if you have a professional in your family that WANTS to give you the friends and family rate. But I'm guessing during work hours they'd like to make their money and during off hours, they'd like to not work.

I have vacation rental property. I get soooo tired of everyone wanting it free or a deeply discounted rate, always during the short prime rental season. Hey, I have three months to make enough money to pay the taxes, the insurance (3 types for coastal property), mortgage, not to mention utilities, upkeep, etc. No, I will not give you a discount during high season. Even in the off-season, it still costs me money for someone to use the house rather than it sit empty. I get some pretty ticked off people even when I offer a friend's discount (off season only). They want it for free. Too bad, so sad and you are off the invite list when I use it for personal reasons and invite friends over. I do barter it to my one plumber relative for services rendered. But that's like $1000 labor equals $1000 rental.

My husband doesn't love being the IT geek in the family, but it's definitely his role. I love that he will always do it even if he doesn't really want to. It's just how he is. 

I'm the librarian in the family, so that mostly just means everyone thinks I know what books they should be reading right now. That's pretty easy.

I am a lawyer and care too much about my license to be going around dispensing free actual legal advice to people who aren't my clients. I am, however, always very willing to look for referrals for people, as well as, in areas I know something about, to talk to them about what they should ask their attorneys, what they might expect from the process, etc.

So far, I have only had one situation where a family member tried to get me to act for free on their behalf, and I was able to tell them honestly that the law varies a lot in my area and that we were in different jurisdictions, and that they were better off with a lawyer from their own state.

I know exactly what you're talking about. My DH is in a profession that came up in the other thread mentioned and his business is home based. Everyone always thinks that he should be able to pop in on the weekend and fix their problem for low/no cost, but the reality is that his vehicle, equipment, materials, skill set and knowledge base (not to mention the licenses he requires, insurance, and, and, and...) all cost us money so he can do what he does FOR A LIVING.

As nice as it would be to do free favors for everyone and their momma, our mortgage, heat, electric, etc. still have to be paid for with actual money. Not to mention at the end of a long week of busting his tail working, the absolute last thing he wants to do on his time off is deal with other people's stuff when we have our own projects to do.

This is what I say. I get tired of family members calling me for legal advice. I just don't do it. It's a blanket rule I adopted early on in my career and it's kept me sane.

I work in healht field so I get a lot of questions about long term insurance, medicare, Medicaid, etc... I personally do not mind. But I have a lot of nurse, doctors, lawyer, CPA, police friends. I don't ask advise. Sometimes I will call and ask who they would recommend for what I need. I did call in a favor last summer, I was gone and don cut himself. I had my doctor neighbor to run over to confirm stitches or no stitches. But I justified because I hauled her kid around all summer!!
I didn't ask her to stitch it up, I just needed to know if I had to fly home, or finish what I was doing. Son was 16, so not like he was a young kid.

I've lucked out so far - not many in my family have asked for or expected cake for free.

One time, when I said to my mom "I would normally charge $X for this" she said "but I'm your Mother!" - but since I started doing cakes full time, she was always careful to ask what I'd charge and what she owed me.

When I offer free cake, that is one thing. But don't expect it of me.

But like the rest of you - I have kids to feed, bills to pay, and my son's basketball habit to support. This is my job, and I don't do it for free!

In my case it ends up being customers that will say "I'm ordering two cakes and paying cash, do I get a discount?" Um,no - it takes me just as much time to make two cakes whether they are for two people or the same person. No multiple order discounts!

99 out of 100 times it pisses me off because it means the person asking wants professional advice for free. The 100th time, I share what I know out of the goodness of my heart hoping it will help in some small way.

My BIL is the family IT guy. I don't ask him for anything, I feel my parents have used all our family allotment 

Me too....and it never fails that everyone assumes I'm super busy from 1/1 to 4/15 doing taxes....yes I'm an accountant but not all accountants prepare tax returns for a living!

I'm dreading going to my eye doc for this very reason.  I'm a controller of a non-profit.  He thinks I'm CPA/tax accountant (I've never ever said I was a CPA, to anyone!).  Every year, "oh, you must be busy doing taxes".  It drives me insane.  I'm thinking of changing my appointment until June.  But then he'd probably ask about quarterlies or something.

The only taxes I do are my own, my aunts and now this year for the first time my retired parents.  And my parents asked how much I would charge them.  Um how about nothing! You're my parents.  My Dad insists on taking us out to dinner (if he gets a refund!) LOL!

My issue with family/friends is food related.  I took time off from my regularly scheduled career and went to culinary school - 10 years ago!.  People ask what food should I make with _____, how much ____ should I buy for 25 adults and 6 kids, how long will _____ last before spoiling, can I put ____ in the freezer and will it taste good after thawing in a cooler while camping.  I usually say they should Google it, that's what I do.