My family is pretty awesome, really, but there’s no way some of the more remote relatives would not come calling. Our sisters, brother, parents, etc., no problem. They would take the sums we chose to gave them with a smile and ask for not a penny more. But I’ve got uncles I haven’t talked to in years, cousins… oh yes indeedy. They would suddenly be very chummy, and I bet I know precisely which ones would suddenly be super friendly with me and which ones would be decent about it. I can hear the conversation with my Uncle John in my head right now. Fuck him, by the way.
Furthermore, people we give money to will themselves be hit up for cash if it’s found out they got money from us. If I win $50 million tonight and give my Mom a million bucks (which I would) if that gift becomes commonly known of, I can predict with depressing accuracy exactly which of her friends will beg HER for money. If we give my sister a million my brother in law’s family will practically demand a huge slice.
Easy money changes people, often quite unpleasantly. Don’t for an instant forget that.
My mother wouldn’t ask for money, but she would be constantly barraging me and attempting to guilt me over how SHE thinks I should spend it, and how I should be giving money to THEIR church, and helping their friends, and their causes, etc, etc etc…
My dad would criticize my every move, every dime spent that he didn’t like.
Hence, my first words to them would be a warning that it is my money and I don’t want to hear it from them. Or I’ll stop hearing it from them by no longer interacting with them.
I have cousins I haven’t seen or heard from in 25-30 years. You’re damn skippy they’d be crawling out of the woodwork if I won.
As I put it to a friend;
Imagine everyone who you’ve ever known, worked with, went to school with, interacted with, friends of friends, met briefly, whatever. Everyone who has any reason at all to remember your name in any context. Now imagine all of those people are in a football stadium when the scoreboard lights up, shows your current picture and your name, and tells all of those people that you just won a fortune. How do you think that will go for you?
I think there are only about five people in the world who have my phone number written down or programmed into their phone. A few other relatives would have to call my sister to get my phone number. I’m in the phone book, but listed by first initial. In the city I live in, there may be only three or four people who know my last name, including my rental manager.