DEAR ABBY: My daughter's boyfriend recently came to us asking for our daughter's hand in marriage. We like him very much, and we were happy to give our blessings. What threw me was, after he got our permission, he asked if we had any family heirlooms (diamonds) he could use to have made into an engagement ring.
Call me old-fashioned, but I thought the groom-to-be usually got something like that handed down from his family, not the bride's. Please tell me if I'm wrong about this. -- OLD-FASHIONED MOM
DEAR OLD-FASHIONED: You are not wrong. The groom (not the parents of the bride-to-be) is supposed to be responsible for the engagement ring. Because you like the young man, you should have conveyed that message as gently as possible.