My mum has always been a difficult person, she's basically a bully who likes to control everyone around her.
We've had a very up and down relationship (I'm now mid 40's). We had a explosive argument yesterday and it's the clarity I think I need to back away and reset boundaries.
The thing that kicked it off yesterday was that my DD has a cold, my Mum basically said I'm not surprised she's always cold. She's not cold, she was wearing thick tights and a long sleeve dress. If she had been cold she would have told me or she would have put her jacket on - she's nearly 5 so is quite capable of telling me how she is feeling.
My mum is a total control freak and said some really hurtful things in the past. My niece has a bit of a weight issue, and I said that she reminds me of me when I was a child - I was very overweight. My mum took that as a criticism of her and said basically you're in you're 40's now I'm not the reason why you're still fat! When a relationship years earlier broke up she said I'm not surprised he left you as you do nothing!
My dad is absolutely lovely and not a bit like this, but he's been bullied and brow beaten over the years so he doesn't usually say much anymore.
The criticism of my parenting and undermining me is the final straw. I won't allow my children to be subjected to the same treatment. She constantly tells me that my kids do too many activities and I should drop some of them - Over my dead body, I'm sure this is a way of assuaging some guilt over the fact that we never ever did anything as kids
I'm not sure after writing all of that what the reason of this post is other than it feels good to get that out and maybe hear from other people who have gone low contact for the same reasons