Dear Prudence,
My mother remarried about three years ago. Her new husband had two daughters in college. The first and last time we met them was at the wedding. Which is why I was surprised to get an email inviting me to a virtual baby shower for one of them. I clicked on their Amazon wishlist and nothing was under $250! I called my sister and we both agreed this was a pretty obvious gift grab so we declined to attend.
This has upset my mother. She says we need to embrace our new family. I told her that I loved her and I was happy if she got to play grandma to her stepdaughter’s future kid, but that didn’t make them our nieces or nephews and no one should expect that out of us. My sister agrees with me, but our mother keeps pressing the issue. What should we do?
—Gift and Grift