AIBU to snap after my mum kept calling a bike a trike?

My DM does this too! She doesn’t do it to make herself feel better that she isn’t doing the new / exciting / cool / modern thing. She does it because it’s not what she would choose and is therefore wrong. It’s so laughable that actually I just laugh. You can’t take it personally OP, therein lies the path to madness.

It sounds like she doesn’t do the same to your sister or maybe she is more patient. Well, good for her. Like you I would be angry.

I think the only thing you can do is not tell her anything of any significance. It’s sad really because I’m sure you would like to share your news and feelings with your mum, but if she can’t or won’t take the information on board and appreciate what you are telling her then fuck her. Just talk about the weather and the price of cheese.

Assuming she’s cognitively fine I’d have said I’ve explained 100 times that it’s a bike not a trike but mum is struggling to understand the difference so let’s just go along with whatever is easiest for her. That should nip it in the bud.

YABU for losing your temper so much that you swore at your mother. Family are very annoying sometimes but you just have to let it wash over you.

I understand how annoying it is because my mum used to say the wrong words on purpose to annoy me. The difference is I never would have dared scream and shout at her!
I would pretend that you have no idea what she's talking about. For example, if she asks if you've found a trike, say Trike? I don't know what you're talking about. Then if she says Aren't you getting her a trike? Just say No, I'm not.

My mum used to pretend she had never heard me mention my university friends. She feigned baffled incomprehension when I mentioned "Kate" for example at the end of my third year. I had lived with Kate for two of the three years yet she said in an incredulous tone "I've never heard you mention Kate in my life"

So either you are lying or you weren't listening. Go mum.

Tripod
triangle
triathlon
triology
trimester
trio

what do these words have in common? Oh they’re small Versions of things , for kids!

Nah! A bike with stabilisers has four wheels. How can it be a tricycle?

My mum deliberately gets people’s names wrong

every single time she mentions my sil (DH sister) she calls her by another name. We have been married for 15 years. She’s got a perfectly normal name. Easy to pronounce. Not complicated

You can’t control what she does, you can only control your response.

If she does this to DD then just laugh, roll your eyes and say “isn’t Granny silly”

Don’t make it a thing for her. Don’t give it oxygen.

'I studied Maths at university. Not Economics. Guess what this parent tells everyone under the sun whenever there is any mention of university/studying?'

My mother has done this too! She rewrites reality in general to suit her own agenda

My trivial example is that she refuses to use the words 'arms' and 'legs' but says 'hands' and 'feet' instead. So for example, 'youve got goosebumps on your hands' when she means arms 🙄 a

Always done it. That's just one example. It sounds like nothing to other people but it really does your head in

dont be silly. Trike is definitely a three wheeler to anyone who understands English

Back in the day (1960s) when I grew up a small bike with 2 stabilisers was called ‘a bike with stabilisers’. A small bike was a ‘kids bike’. Trikes were trikes with 3 wheels. I’ve never heard of anyone calling bikes trikes.

OP, sorry your mum is weird. Probably only thing you can do is ‘grey rock’ it as much as possible.

I'm not convinced that people do instantly know. The vast, vast majority of people refer to a quadricycle as a 'quad bike' - even though it's clear as day that it doesn't have eight wheels. 'Quike', 'quad' or 'quaddie' would make much more sense for an informal short name, but nobody ever seems to use any of them.

To a lot of people, a 'trike' is just a generic term that means a young child's vehicle - even if it only has two wheels. They don't stop to think about how many wheels it has before using the term.

doubt it, the OP says she has been doing it since the OP was a child.

I hear you OP and the other posters who go through similar.

Mine likes to use either “I’m sorry that I’m only human/not perfect”.

My mum said "oh silly me, you know I get confused, I can never get things right with you" - this was her usual response to being called out (or she'd say "a mother's place is in the wrong, I know, I know" and sigh).

Yes! Or, "That's right I was a terrible mother" or "Yes, it's ALWAYS the mother's fault isn't it?" with accompanying sad face. She used to do that when I was a teen to guilt me into saying "no you weren't" etc. If she ever does it again I'm going to say "Yes in many ways you were."

I completely get it OP. My mum does exactly the same sort of thing, and it’s so hard to explain to others how wearing it is.
She’s started doing it to my kids now too. My eldest has recently started a new school, and has made a really good friend. Every single time my daughter mentions this friend, my mum will say ‘who?’ Then if my mum mentions her, she’ll get her name wrong. It’s not a difficult or unusual name, so I can only surmise that she’s doing it on purpose.
My daughter has even said to me ‘why does granny keep pretending she doesn’t know who x is?’
It’s exhausting.

YABU because if she's doing it deliberately she is doing it for attention and she is getting it from you. The best way to deal with thus kind of behaviour is to ignore it.

Does she do this to your sister?

if you’re right then dial back the contact.

Back in the day where I grew up, a small 2 wheeled bike that had 2 stabilisers on was called a Trike.
It was still called a Trike when the stabilisers were taken off.
it generally just meant very small Bike.

I think we may have the same mother 😂

My mum used to do something similar - and yes, my first clear memory of her doing it was when I was a teenager, and she was (calculating from my age at the time) barely 40. She lived into her early 80s - it wasn't early onset dementia but it took me decades to recognise what she was doing.

Like you, I recognised it when she started doing it infront of my eldest and my eldest was old enough to notice and for the first time asked me why we were now now doing (thing grandma said) instead of the thing I'd been doing with my child up till then.

My mum said "oh silly me, you know I get confused, I can never get things right with you" - this was her usual response to being called out (or she'd say "a mother's place is in the wrong, I know, I know" and sigh).

But the fact was she always took whatever I said and changed it to belittle me and make herself look good, or simply to make something I'd told her about to let her feel involved all about her and claim it as her idea or claim that I had asked for her help and was unable to do said thing without her advice or help when I hadn't asked for anything, didn't want anything and had only shared to be nice.

The worst thing (as with your sister) was she'd then go and tell our extended family her version, which invariably made me sound like a helpless adult-child and her hero of the year.

Honestly I stopped telling her anything at all until after it was done and dusted years before she died. To be honest no matter how little I told her she'd still spin the tiniest thing.

What saved my sanity was my siblings finally realising she did it to all of us - getting to know your sister better out of your mum's shadow might be a revelation....

I’ve started playing confused, not sure it would have worked with your sister. “A trike? Not sure what you are talking about because I’ve never mentioned one, maybe Carol has mentioned getting one for her grandchild because he’s a baby?” Then if she pushes I say “no you must be thinking of someone else because I’ve mentioned getting Thomas a bike several times but not a trike but you know that”

It’s a form of belittling and attention seeking at the same time. Those who have not experienced it won’t have a clue, so I’m not surprised by the results of the poll.

I have gone very LC with a parent over this kind of behaviour. Like you say, OP, it completely grinds you down.

I’ll throw in my own ‘trivial’ example:

I studied Maths at university. Not Economics. Guess what this parent tells everyone under the sun whenever there is any mention of university/studying? That’s right. After years and years of correcting, I trialed grey rocking / staying silent. Naturally this was met with a faux-confused “It was Economics you studied, wasn’t it, have I got that right?”