Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Steps are not related to you. Let their family members send them gifts (or not).
Exactly, don't step-kids sometimes come out way ahead, because of having more family to dote on them?
Yes, they do, and it can be overwhelming to the step. It really sort of takes some of the fun out of it for the kid, or at least that is what I saw in my own stepson. He would get stuff from a whopping 3 sets of grandparents and two sets of parents, not to mention aunts and uncles. I tried to explain this to my parents, but they insisted on getting him stuff. I always insisted that when he was with us at my family's celebration, it was my and my husband's responsibility to provide something for him to unwrap. They never listened to me. It helped when he started spending Christmas with his mom, and then he grew up and it wasn't an issue any more.
I don't love the idea of forcing a relationship between steps and grandparents. My stepson is unlikely to have an ongoing relationship with my parents; in fact, he doesn't. And that's okay; he has perfectly lovely grandparents of his own. I know plenty of families do it differently, and that's fine, but it's not important to everyone.