Anonymous wrote:Thanks everyone! Just to clarify, we didn't get invites or anything - she just sent an email with the date and said they would like us to attend. It's a different city from their home, so other than perhaps numbers for a restaurant reservation I don't think anything is riding on whether or not we're there.
And I do understand why they want to know - it was just the pissed-off tone that kind of threw me. It's February, I'm juggling work deadlines and getting kids signed up summer camps and holding my breath for the next snow day. I've got a dying parent in another city. A grad school graduation in May is about the last thing on my mind these days.
I am pushing my husband to go out to visit after his mother has a knee replacement; he can see SIL then to. Hopefully that will keep us from being excommunicated. It's just to take a week and $3k+ for a grad school ceremony seems kind of silly....
I defifinitely get why you don't want to spend the money & take the time off from work/school to go & agree with most of the PPs that politely decline then sending your niece a card & gift in May is fine but I'm just curious as to why the trip would take a week? Aren't most university graduations held on a Saturday? Even with flying across the country & spending time with the family before/after the day of tge graduation, wouldn't flying out Wednesday evening after school/work & returning Sunday evening (or leaving Thursday evening & coming back on Monday) be enough?