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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To think my mum and brothers relationship is fucking bizarre?

64 replies

TheSnowball · 25/08/2022 14:28

My brother and I are in our 30s. He still lives at home with our mum. I've moved out (thank god!), but had to live with their odd relationship and routine for many years, and according to them, it's still ongoing.

He's always competed with me for her favour, ever since we were kids. But it got worse when our parents separated, it's almost like he's took on the role of being her surrogate husband?

They set their alarm clocks to wake up at the same time as eachother, if one of them has to get up earlier for work, the other one will set their alarm accordingly. They spend hours talking every morning, drive off to work together, drive back home together and then spend 1-2 more hours talking about their day. They don't go anywhere without eachother. They go shopping together, they visit people together. Etc etc.

He agrees with everything she says, hangs onto her every word, she's never in the wrong in his eyes, they slag people off all the time (including me!) and egg eachother on. It's bizarre. I feel awful anxiety speaking to them now because I know when I walk away they're gonna be slagging me off, as always.

Any kind of argument I had with her as a teenager (just normal arguments teenage girls have with their mums), he'd aggressively square up to me, shouting in my face, calling me every name under the sun. She'd then thank him for 'standing up for her', then come and ask me if I was okay and tell me he was out of order ??? Hmm
I felt suffocated and stifled in my own home for years.
Now I'm not allowed to have any kind of disagreement with her without him involving himself and getting aggressive with me.

I'm not being nosey, it wouldn't bother me at all if it wasn't for the fact that I'm not allowed to have a normal relationship with my own mother. I can't speak to her on her own, she's always with him. He makes it a them vs me situation all the time, and gets confrontational and competitive with me. I have to walk on eggshells and watch what I say.

I lived with them and their behaviour for so long and whenever I tried to bring it up they made out that I was the weird one. But surely it's not just me that thinks this is completely fucking abnormal?

OP posts:
Hazygreenday · 25/08/2022 18:46

But even when you move on it would still be nice to have a relationship with your mother. You are pushed out in the cold as the co dependents are so involved with each other. It’s sad.

TheSnowball · 25/08/2022 19:00

Hazygreenday · 25/08/2022 18:46

But even when you move on it would still be nice to have a relationship with your mother. You are pushed out in the cold as the co dependents are so involved with each other. It’s sad.

Exactly this. It's heartbreaking. I don't want to sound bitter but it's devastating that the relationships I could've had with them are ruined and I don't see it ever improving. I just wish they were normal.

OP posts:
TheSnowball · 25/08/2022 19:03

EmeraldShamrock1 · 25/08/2022 18:15

It isn't uncommon for one DC to stay behind and create a co-dependant with the parent whilst everyone else moves on with their lives.

This has been going on a long time before I moved out, as I said in my OP. I lived in the middle of it all 😬

@LampLighter414 No, I don't believe that at all.

OP posts:
Wheresmywoolyjumpers · 25/08/2022 19:08

What is he going to do when she dies? I hate to see parents do this to their children, she must have built the foundation for this unhealthy relationship before you were born.

Hazygreenday · 25/08/2022 19:29

My brother went mad when my mother died. Couldn’t even sit with her on her last days of life.
Then set about getting a settlement(to the detriment of everyone else) that meant he could continue living his cocooned lifestyle of never having to go out to work and living in her lovely home.
If I’d have known what was coming I’d have sought advice and tried to prepare myself properly at such a vulnerable time.

Nomorefuckstogive · 25/08/2022 19:34

Sounds Oedipal to me.

bellac11 · 25/08/2022 19:35

Emotional incest.

Steer well clear OP

IrishladyNE · 25/08/2022 20:50

An ex of mine had a relationship like this with his mother, I found it so bizarre that I started researching online. It sounds like your brother is emotionally enmeshed with your mother, it usually happens with a narcissistic mother. It was just so strange to see. He also had serious intimacy issues. That’s a relationship I’m glad I got away from.

GettingItOutThere · 25/08/2022 21:02

LampLighter414 · 25/08/2022 18:14

Could it have evolved into a romantic relationship?

i was about to suggest this too. Very bizarre

Lucielllle87 · 25/08/2022 21:03

It sounds like enmeshment?

InsomniacVampire · 25/08/2022 21:25

Has your brother ever had any GFriends/partners, or even any other friends, does he hang out with anyone at all or just sits at home and goes out with your mum, what does he do for fun?
I find it quite fascinating to be honest!

IrishladyNE · 25/08/2022 22:34

The guy I was dating had friends etc, I honestly felt like I was just a front and he always wanted to be with his mother. He seemed to be A sexual too. Obliviously it was a short relationship for those reasons but I was so confused by it I started watching YouTube videos and apparently lots of men are mother enmeshed some to the extreme. I actually once called him Norman Bates to my friend. It was creepy.

EmeraldShamrock1 · 25/08/2022 22:42

Has your DM shown narcissistic traits in the past?
It comes across like enjoyed keeping you outside the circle.
Does your DM own her home? IME the child who is conditioned to stay over the years gets the inheritance.

FellOnMyArseToDay · 31/12/2022 08:02

Oh op. Firstly you sound lovely and very likeable.

secondly. emotional incest. Emotional incest. Even for a romantic couple that’s too much time together For mother and son it’s way too much.

im so sorry you don’t have a mum and that your brother has absorbed her.

How close are you with your father? Can you build a relationship with him.

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