I’m in a bit of a situation. My mom has asked me about some advice on what she should do. I’ll try to keep this short, without omitting major details. She has had a somewhat sour relationship with her stepbrother, “John.” It’s kind of one of those situations where “I’m not going to call you, but I don’t mind seeing you.” My family, less John, has inherited through my mom’s dad, a cabin and 55 acres of land, where we hunt fish and spend time unwinding from city life. Similarly, John has a cabin in deep creek, Maryland with a boat and a place on the lake. He has spent many hunting seasons at our camp in the past, but not once in my lifetime have we been invited to his place in Maryland. He has since had to sell his camp due to relocating to another state. John has now been inviting himself to our camp, and even went so far as to unscrew the lock on the door to let himself in when we weren’t there. Now he is asking for a key to the place, but we confronted him about our tentativeness towards the situation, and how he has never made an effort to include us in his weekends at Maryland. Now it has only lead to a more distant relationship – not that it really matters because we never spoke in the first place. Now the question – should we deny John and his family access to our camp, or should we forget about his negligence towards our family?
