Saturday, July 5, 2014

We're back to "this is why you're single"

As we speak, mom is telling dad that I will be alone forever and she'll never have grandchildren because nobody will ever be able to live with me. She also repeated many times that she didn't want to come here and agreed to as a huge favor to dad, and then proceeded to enumerate all the sacrifices I made so I could do everything I ever wanted.

What brought this on? First, I forgot the first rule of dealing with mom: she dishes out shitty things to you all day, every day, but gets ridiculously defensive and uncooperative at polite statements and requests, such as,

  • could you give me a minute? I'm sending a work e-mail
    • mom response: so?
  • could you please not go upstairs in those (slip-off) shoes?
    • mom response: why? [because they've been outside in the mud] so? [and I gave you slippers] so?
  • oh, don't water the lavender. The lavender prefers dry soil.
    • mom response: stop telling me what to do!
  • mom, you're about to fall out of your tank top.
    • mom response: so? [so I live on a street and have neighbors; please pull up your tank top.]
And so on. And I should know that and in theory I should be able to let it go, but in the moment, I have to react.

And then she kept going on and on and on about the horrific killings in the Middle East (and about her less than progressive proposals regarding the conflict), and dad and I asked her to stop, multiple times. I eventually lost it.

A.: Stop. Just stop.
Mom: Why should I stop!
A.: Because it's enough! Why do you have to keep rehashing horrible things non-stop?
Mom: People have to live with that.
Dad: Those people don't talk about it non-stop. They move on because they have to.

This got her on a spiral of his always taking my side, my being a horrible person, my being a know-it-all who always has to get what I want, my being dead to her and her never wanting to see me again, and so on.

We have two more days. I kind of have to agree with her: why did dad think this was a good idea?

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