No. My parents always drive and my ILs have a boatload of money. Though I wish we could pay them not to visit. We actually can't really afford to visit them as 4 plane tickets to CA means we get no family vacation if we go there.

Similar.

My surviving parent is also a multi-millionaire and gives me flack for being a working mom.

I think there is a small perception of expectation depending on gender.
My MIL used to really like when my DH bought her things or took care of her. It made her proud of the man he had become.

I see my mom do that, too. She has bought herself things and told me she plans to tell people my brother bought it for her.

Maybe that is just us, but I see it in other families, too (not the lying, but the "my son" syndrome).

If you can afford it, and they would appreciate it, there isn't much reason for you not to.

I can't afford that.

My mother could never afford to fly so yes, I buy her tickets, or I did. She no longer likes to fly, but I still pay for whatever mode of travel she takes to get here.

Yes and my mil lives abroad. We pay 2k and then have to buy tons of gifts to send back.

Anonymous wrote:We buy their tickets if they are coming to help us out, like if one of us is traveling internationally. They buy their tickets to see us at the holidays, and we buy our own to see them in the summer.

Our income is a lot higher than theirs, but between childcare and student loans it ends up being kind of a wash. I can see a time when our finances will be better than theirs and then we'll start buying their tickets no matter what.

This is us exactly.

We pay gas and tolls but we also are now paying for almost everything else too for my mother.

For my mom yes, my dad no (parents are divorced). Dad won't accept it but this also means he doesn't come visit. So in all the years I have lived here he has been here twice, one of those times was when I got married.

No, they have much more money than we do, so they give us enough money every year for international flights for the family that we can choose to use to see each other or go elsewhere.

If you can afford it, pay the tickets. It's little compared to what they spent on you growing up.

Both sets of parents are within driving distance, so plane tickets aren't an issue. My parents wouldn't dream of letting us pay for their hotel (we no longer have a guest room). In laws usually pay for their own but we've paid occasionally. We are paying the lion's share of a vacation with them next month, but we invited them to come and welcome the help so it's not a big deal. They would have had a hard time paying it, and this let me set the terms of the vacation (length, choice of hotel, etc).

My MIL struggles financially. She lives within driving distance to us, but we pay for some of her flights to visit my SIL/nephew who live across the country. My MIL can't afford plane tickets and we're in a better place financially than my SIL, so we are happy to pay for some of her trips rather than having my SIL have to pay for all of the travel.

My own parents also live within driving distance of us, and don't need help financially.

My father is wealthy, and in fact makes a lot more than we do, but we usually pay his hotel when he visits us. He tends to drive rather than fly. He'd never want to stay with us, and he'd be happy to pay for his own room. We just do it to be hospitable. He usually makes it up to us by buying dinner a couple of times.

We buy their tickets if they are coming to help us out, like if one of us is traveling internationally. They buy their tickets to see us at the holidays, and we buy our own to see them in the summer.

Our income is a lot higher than theirs, but between childcare and student loans it ends up being kind of a wash. I can see a time when our finances will be better than theirs and then we'll start buying their tickets no matter what.

No my dad is a multi-millionaire. I wish he bought our tickets since it's so expensive with 5 of us, but he never would offer so we rarely are able to visit him.

We used to pay for MIL's train tickets.