Paying to attend family reunion
I (22f) have little to no experience with extended family as both my parents moved away from their families way before I was born. The only blood-related family members that I know are my parents and my siblings as we were only born and raised under the same roof. That being said, the only family reunions that I’ve been to were those of family friends’ and I was surrounded by people that I didn’t know outside of the ones that extended the invitation to me. I was recently talking to my parents and my younger sister (14f) went with our godparents to a family reunion but they ended up not going because my godfather said that he wasn’t going to pay for it(which is understandable). But I was talking to my parents and they said that that’s the reason that they’ve never gone to a family reunion as well. I find it very strange because in my eyes, you shouldn’t have to pay to see family when they don’t even reach out to you for free. I can understand if it was a fundraiser to support someone or it was to collectively pitch in on food and decorations, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. I’m extremely perturbed by this stipulation so I guess my question is, is this normal? If so, when did it start and why?