Economic hardships are always a tough issue, but Christmas is the time when they become especially touching. Even if money isn’t something that keeps you awake at night, chances are that downturns happen in your piggy bank before, during, and after the holidays.

I used to resort to my parents, looking for bailouts, mostly through emotional blackmail, since they felt like “the Docklands” compared to my situation. But one day they decided to switch to a laissez-faire mode, turning off the faucet. That got me thinking. My first reaction was to appeal to my brother's sense of justice and welfare, since he's the family member most like a trade union. He lacks binding power, but he's my mother’s apple of the eye, so I asked him to pull some strings in my favor. However, the outcome was far from expected, and I went on strike. I walked all around the house, holding up a big sign (made from a broomstick and a piece of an Amazon box), demanding my rights, while underestimating my parents’ witty minds, who had deployed their annoying, yappy, ugly little dog as a picket, sending my grievances straight down the sink and doing away with any chance for the conflict to escalate.