Being Assertive

[funkstarsista]

Hi all,
A new friend of mine is separated and his ex has moved on. He misses his two kids and his relationship with his ex-wife is very bad. I am happy to listen to him and be a shoulder to cry on.
Now he has sent me a message on facebook asking me to help him write a letter to the school regarding his daughter, asking for report cards etc. He also wants me to help him change his FB settings so that his ex cannot read his status updates.
I said I would help him but I do not really want to. I don't want to get that involved in his personal business. I am married and have my own children to care for and I am busy doing family things this weekend and he is basically asking me to come and help him over the weekend some time.
I am tempted to simply ignore him (he has sent me 2 messages on FB now) or should I tell him straight out I don't want to get involved? How do I say this nicely?
Will he be offended, is it my problem if he is? I hate hurting peoples feelings but I also dislike doing things I don't want to do just to make others happy :(
Thanks

[lsapphirel]

Just tell him you are too busy. And next time before you get into situations, just say this, "i dont know".

[SunnieDebris]

It kind of sounds like these are things he can do on his own. Writing a letter is not hard. Changing your FB settings can be confusing, but all he needs to do is sit calmly at the computer and work it out. It sounds like he has few friends, and that he is leaning on you a bit too much. Don't worry about being an asshole. Odds are, that if you help him with these tasks, he will only ask you for more help in the future. Tell him you do not have the time, and that you are confident that he can do these on his own. There's plenty of help on the Internet, too. He just needs to do a Google search. Good luck and let us know how it goes!

Sunnie