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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

DM so obtuse that it feels like cruelty

4 replies

ThatNimblePeer · 14/06/2025 21:12

I’ll try to keep this brief. I was badly bullied at secondary school, which fucked me up a lot. DM knows this. She knows who the bullies were. Last year she whatsapped me a message about one of them being given an award, with a newspaper clipping including a picture of the bully. I messaged back asking why the fuck she was sending me this. She gave me a vague response that was basically that the bullying was a long time ago, and she thought I’d be interested to know about someone I went to school with.

In my late teens, I cut off a friend who had repeatedly expressed homophobic views (I’m bi although she wasn’t aware of that). DM knows that I ended the friendship although not why. She recently ran into the ex-friend and apparently had a yak with her, and told me about it, seeming to think I’d be pleased to hear that. From what she said it’s clear she yakked on about my life and told ex-friend I’d been struggling with various things, which no doubt ex-friend will have been delighted about. I actually want to vomit when I think about it, I haven’t forgiven ex-friend and she’s the last person I want being told anything about my life.

AIBU to wonder what the hell is wrong with DM? She doesn’t seem to be able to connect her brain beyond ‘oh, there’s someone I used to know’. I’ve racked my brains to try to think how to get through to her how this is making me feel, but she just doesn’t seem to get it. There’s a former colleague of hers she really disliked at work because she found him patronising, I assume she’d hate if I ran into him and started yakking away to him about her private life. When I tell her how I feel she reacts as if I’m difficult and the problem. I’m not out to her partly because I don’t trust her not to yak about it to anyone and everyone she meets. So hurt by this honestly.

OP posts:
Tindelle · 15/06/2025 01:23

These two incidents are a year apart. Apart from this does your Mum act in a cruel way towards you

FeministUnderTheCatriarchy · 15/06/2025 03:55

Tell her you ran into the colleague, and then tell her your old him certain things you know she wouldn't like.

Some people only learn by experiencing it themselves.

My mum doesn't do this specifically, but she can't keep anything I tell her to herself. She has ruined multiple of my big announcements by sharing them first. I've given up battling her on it, but I can understand how frustrating it is when a parent doesn't "get" something.. Or seem to care

HappyWedding · 15/06/2025 06:29

Hi OP. I felt my mum acted in a cruel way towards me. She was an abusive narcissistic alcoholic who didn’t care about the hurt she was causing.

I can totally relate to what you’re saying because my mum did something spiteful to me - but she’d done loads of more blatantly physically and emotionally abusuvd things before this.

The context was we were middle class family and I was 19 in a relationship with a working class lad. My mum asked me if I wanted to go to church one Sunday before Xmas. Just giving context - the church my mum went to was very connected with the school I went to and in general was a very middle class community. I’d stopped going to church because for the past 2 years had a Sunday job.

I said to my mum re going to church - “no I don’t want to go - I’ve left school and don’t want to go back to that community.” - not exactly those words but the words above accurately summarise what I was trying to say.

My mum’s face looked bitter and angry. I very worryingly looking back ‘rolled over’ and said I’d go in an attempt to avoid her disapproval. She said in a bitter voice that I didn’t have to go if I didn’t want to.

mum asked me to invite my boyfriend over on Xmas Eve which I thought was strange as she didn’t like him. So he came over but she’d also invited this very well educated middle class family from my church/school and said I’d gone out with the lad and he’d been my boyfriend I absolutely didn’t !! I didn’t like this family one bit as it happened. She also introduced my boyfriend as my friend !!

spiteful cow rubbing my nose in the shit !

BrickHare · 15/06/2025 06:42

I would stop telling her private stuff about your life. Not all mothers like their children, they can be quite competitive with daughters and even jealous. Could this be the case here?

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