Ask Amy: Aunt won't play nice on Facebook

DEAR AMY: My teenage daughter and her cousins have a 40-year-old aunt who has a Facebook page.

This aunt posts baby pictures of the kids and frequently comments on their pages. Not only are the kids embarrassed by the pictures, they also do not like their aunt being a part of their online social network.

While one niece has blocked this aunt and another has refused to "friend" her, my daughter is too intimidated to block her aunt.

How should these children respectfully get their aunt to stop checking on them via Facebook? She already knows her nieces and nephews are offended by her comments and postings, and this has not stopped her.

TOO OLD FOR FACEBOOK

DEAR TOO OLD: There are plenty of middle-age people capable of navigating on Facebook, but the experience is easier for everyone if the older generation accepts that Facebook "rules" are dictated by people who want to be able to reveal all - but don't want for anyone else to violate their "privacy."

It's tricky. If this aunt wants to play with the kids, she's going to have to suffer the slings and arrows of adolescence, right along with them.

They've tried to be respectful, and she has not complied. They should refuse to "friend" - or block - her. If the aunt in question wants to find out why she has been blocked, she can ask.

The young family members might be able to send their aunt a friendly, funny video, telling her that they're blocking her from Facebook - but saying that they look forward to letting her torture them in person over the holidays.

DEAR AMY: Our daughter is maid of honor at one of her best friends' weddings. Her mother and I are invited to the wedding and reception. This daughter was a bridesmaid at another friend's wedding a few months ago. We were not invited to this wedding or reception. My wife was surprised. Is it standard practice for the parents of bridesmaids or for that matter ushers to be invited to the weddings?

CURIOUS DAD

DEAR DAD: Despite the perception that weddings are supposed to be run according to a set of prescribed guidelines, there is little about a wedding that conforms to any "standard practice."

If the bride and groom consider you and your wife to be close friends of the family, you will be invited. Parents should not presume that an invitation will be offered based on their relationship to the attendant - but on their relationship to the marrying couple.

askamy@tribune.com