Recently, I was privy to the following dilemma.

A local mom complained that she sends birthday cards gifts to her grown children, their spouses and her grandchildren every year but over the last number of years there has been no sign of any reciprocation.  What should she do was the question of the moment?

The universal opinion was to keep sending cards and gifts to the grandkids.  But how about the kids and their spouses?  Honestly, I was a little surprised at some of the advice given most of which fell in the category of to just stop sending gifts and cards.

I had a different reaction and frankly, I was a little surprised by the virtual unanimity of response.  My advice would be to embrace the elephant with her children, tell them directly that her feelings were hurt, explain that birthdays are important and that she would appreciate more attention in the future.

What would you do?