Dear Blake,
We mailed a birthday gift to our granddaughter, and our daughter arranged a video call to let us see her open the present.
To our surprise, our daughter admonished us for not sending a gift to our grandson so he would not feel left out. She stated it was proper gift-giving etiquette to send a gift to our grandson, even though his birthday is in June.
She said this to us in front of her husband and our granddaughter. This was embarrassing to my wife and myself.
We have never heard of this etiquette rule. Was our daughter correct? We love our grandchildren very much, and it was our belief that we did the right thing.
Signed, Gretel
From San Antonio, Texas
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Dear Gretel,
I’m not sure why your daughter became so hostile toward you. There are quite a few possibilities, including your daughter feel you bought her worthless junk for her birthday when she was a little girl, and she gets angry and bitter over her own daughter getting nice things. Here are some other possibilities. It could be that your grandson is a thief, and your daughter is concerned about his stealing her gift, and trying to sell it back to his sister. Or it could be that your grandson has a very unhealthy desire to have everything his sister has, with it being likely that he will demand a sex change operation before he’s a teenager. It just might be, that your grandson is the type that gets very violent when he feels left out, and the other three people in the house know that they will be forced to have rotating shifts standing guard during the night, to ensure that they aren’t murdered, prompted by envy. But the best thing to do is to remain neutral, so you should seriously consider my final idea. Pick a date that’s in between your grandchildren’s birthdays. Set up a video chat, and then explain to them that they’re not getting anything because both of their parents are idiots. I hope this helps.
Blake