My daughter (13) is angry with me because I don't want her to travel across the country to visit her mother.

Her mother left us over ten years ago. We had the occasional phone call and email, but not much contact. She did not want to be a mother to begin with. She tried sticking around at first, but she frequently ignored our daughter, and it was only a matter of time until she left. I have full custody, and I've been raising my daughter on my own. She recently had a birthday, and, quite unexpectedly, my ex wife sent a birthday card with five hundred dollars, telling her that she should come visit, all the way across the country. She never spoke to me about this to begin with. I originally thought it was just a nice card and gave it to my daughter to open; I was not expecting so much money and an invitation to be inside. I'm obviously hesitant to allow her to go. I've called my ex, trying to get to the bottom of this, but she just said that it shouldn't be a crime for her to want to see her daughter. She barely wanted to talk to me about it at all. I just don't feel comfortable with my daughter seeing her, one on one, so far from home, especially since she's been out of our lives for so long. It would be one thing if my ex would come over to visit us, so I could at least be around, but my daughter is convinced that I would ruin any visit she has with her mom. My daughter has been yelling that I'm too overprotective; am I? How do I explain the situation to my daughter? She's convinced that it's as simple as her visiting her mother and becoming best friends with her, but I doubt that it's going to go that way, because her mother has been gone for nearly her entire life. I don't want my daughter to feel unwanted, and I don't want to badmouth her mother, but obviously I'm not a huge fan of the woman who left us. I guess this is kind of a rant, but also looking for some advice, thanks. via /r/Parenting http://ift.tt/2DmItdH