Have you ever had a family member try to use gifts as emotional blackmail?

Yes my m-i-l patented this style of abuse in the 60s I think. I watch her do it to my wife and children repeatedly. She has created such bad blood with them all. I tried to tell her once about her selfishness and demanding attitude. She lives 5 mins drive from our house before I'd got home she'd called my wife already with a blackmail demand! What can you do? I keep her as much at arms length from me as I can now.

she sounds terrible! I hope they know not to think anything of her actions.
My mother in law likes to have conversations with her grandkids about 'what a waste of time high school is and how they don't teach you anything anyhow. you may as well drop out.'

Ah she's knowledgable about Pavlov's experiments... Hehe

No, luckily that's never happened.

My grandmother did this to me..but it was not because i didnt see her...in fact we were at her house all the time...

She would buy my cousins expensive gifts and my aunts and uncles expensive gifts...things they had asked for...and then she would give my mother and i and my brother cheap gifts.

My cousin: super awesome brand name barbie dolls..expensive makeup and clothes
Me: dollar store barbie

We would all open our gifts together so there was no avoiding knowing the purposeful favoritism.

My grandmother was a psycho.