Dear Ann Landers,
y husband and I are fuming over the unbe-lievably dumb response you gave to that father in Akron. His daughter wanted an interest-free loan from Dad to buy a larger home because she didn't want to liquidate any of her assets. Well, unless her father took the money out of his non-interest-producing mattress, he lost money on the deal. My siblings and I have also used "The Bank of Dad" on occasion, but never, even when offered, would we consider an interest-free loan. One of the problems with our society today is that too many people ex-pect something for nothing, and here you are, encouraging it. We're betting Ann Landers is going to hear plenty about this one. -Marc and Terri in North Carolina

Dear M. and T.,
You win that bet. I am catching it from readers as far away as Tokyo. Since I have no defense, I shall plead temporary in-sanity. Read on: From Chicago: Ann, please, please, adopt me! I sure can use an in-terest-free loan. I am married and have two children, with a third one on the way. We live in a small one-bedroom house and must move to a bigger place. Unfortunately, my credit rating isn't so terrific, which means I'm not "bankable." Tell "Carl in Akron" I'd be happy to pay him 11 percent interest. -Steve Houston: Please be advised that there are potentially serious tax im-plications for failing to charge interest on a loan to family members or anyone else. In 1984, it was written into the Internal Revenue Code that any gift over $10,000 is taxable. So please, Ann, don't be telling people it's OK to lend children unlimited amounts of money without charging interest. That father should be aware that he could be hit with a gift tax. -W.F.C. Nashua, N.H.: I cannot believe your holier-than-thou, bone-headed response to the father whose daughter wanted an interest-free loan. I come from a large family. My brothers and I have borrowed money from our parents and from each other. We all pay the same rate of in-terest the money would have earned had it been left undisturbed in a savings account. -R. and K.C. Dallas: May a reader in her 80s comment on your recent advice re-garding lending money to children interest-free? It is a grave disser-vice to children to be deprived of the pleasure of making it on their own. What's more, I know of some elderly people who have indulged their children foolishly and now they don't have adequate money to live decently in retirement. Will their children be willing to help them? I doubt it. -Been There North Bay, Calif.: I am an adult child who recendy borrowed a sub-stantial sum from my widowed mother. Although she is very comfort-able financially, I know she did not take that money out of a cookie jar. It came from a money market account or some investment that was earn-ing interest. Although my mother didn't request it, it would be uncon-scionable of me not to pay her interest. I cannot believe your response. -Cathy Toronto: Relatives are the first to let you down when it comes to re-paying loans. More breakups and bitter feelings have resulted from lending money than any other single act. -JR- Dear J.R. and all others who wrote: From the looks of the mail, I really laid an egg on that one. Forty thousands readers can't be wrong. Charge the kids interest, folks.