Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Relationships

Mumsnet has not checked the qualifications of anyone posting here. If you need help urgently or expert advice, please see our domestic violence webguide and/or relationships webguide. Many Mumsnetters experiencing domestic abuse have found this thread helpful: Listen up, everybody

AIBU to still feel like a petulant teenager around my mother?

16 replies

Preciousdaisybear · 20/10/2013 17:23

Ok, so I know the answer is yes you're a grown up so act your age but Angry I have worked so hard to lose weight and have lost a stone in total so far which I am really pleased about. When I told DM she said, and I quote, ' not that I want to out-do you darling, but I have just cut butter and cheese out of my diet and I've lost half a stone in 10 days'. I was/am furious. And then, when I was bemoaning the fact that my pay had been frozen for 3 years and that making ends meet was a real struggle I got the story about wartime rationing and the 3 day weeks and blackouts of the 1970s and how when she was a child she only had 3 pairs of pants and her school uniform was cleaned only in school holidays. I am not saying things weren't hard then but all I was looking for was a little support about MY situation NOW.

Why is is that she feels it impossible to just be supportive without the oneupmanship? Is it any wonder I regress to being a 'teenager'?

Ok rant over - back to being a rational human being again.

OP posts:
Sammie101 · 20/10/2013 17:31

Firstly congratulations on your weight loss! Please send me some inspiration to get rid of my baby weight!

I can completely relate to your situation, I'm the same with my mum. It's like there is this big shiny red button that only she can push and she doesn't even have to do anything and it's pushed and I get so moody around her! The other day she turned to me and said "looks like an explosion of washing!" when she saw our huge ironing pile. Yes mother, because with an 11 week old baby ironing is my top priority! I offered for her to do it so she could have a break from her tiring job of sitting home all day on eBay!

I don't really have any advice, just wanted to say I know the feeling. I just eventually snapped at my mother and listed all the little comments she made on a regular basis and she had made an effort not to do it...until the washing one! Rage.

Preciousdaisybear · 20/10/2013 17:38

Sammie congratulations on your baby and well done that you can stand up to your DM. Mine is like a powder keg. It's ok for her to push my buttons but woe betide me if I were to point out her faults... In fact, after I suggested a different way of running her piano teaching business she didn't speak to me for days (weeks).

The weight loss is down to the 5.2 program. It's really been good for me as I do like to eat. There is a great thread here on MN just look in the 5 2 bit. It's onto thread 28 or 29 by now. (I am trying to lose baby weight from DS3 who is now 3yo Blush ) However, it seems to work. If you are BF tho it would be best to check out the advice first.

OP posts:
SharpLily · 20/10/2013 17:42

I know exactly where you're coming from, Precious. I've given up trying to change her and find that living in a different country/continent is the best way to deal with it!

MistressIggi · 20/10/2013 17:53

It sometimes helps me to think, if a friend said that would I be so annoyed - often the answer is no! But again, if it was a friend you wouldn't feel so invested in the relationship when it annoyed you.

EBearhug · 20/10/2013 18:04

I don't know if it's ever possible. I always felt like I was about 14 round my mother. Sometimes she treated me as if I was a lot younger - we were at a family thing when I was in my 20s, and I was asking for sponsorship for a charity thing I was doing. A fairly distant cousin gave me a £20 note, and before I had time to draw breath, my mother was saying, "Say thank you!" If there had actually been a long pause, perhaps it would have been fair enough, but there really hadn't been. I suppose at least she didn't say, "to the nice man," afterwards. Indeed, she once said she was talking to someone at work, and realised I was older and I did a more responsible job than the person she was talking to, but she still couldn't really think of me as more than about 16, whatever she really knew.

In some ways, that's a good thing, I suppose - your mum's always your mum. Except that thinking of me as a teenager meant she was always thinking of me as difficult and argumentative, (I wasn't particularly bad as teenagers go, but there was a lot of stuff projected on me for various reasons,) and not someone she was prepared to listen to, and it took quite a bit of strength not to fall back into that pattern, and I didn't always succeed.

Also, when I really was 16, that was the year I ended up with 6 stitches after she hit me, so while in some relationships, thinking of your daughter as she was at 16 might not be so bad, I really don't think it was helpful in our particular relationship. It's one thing I don't miss now she's no longer here.

SharpLily · 20/10/2013 18:57

It's a funny thing about family members that they always see you in a particular way. My friends know a completely different me to the person my family knows. My mother will still tell people I'm messy, even though I'm borderline OCD neat freak, because when I was seven I wasn't great at picking my toys up from my bedroom floor. My uncle, whom I hadn't seen for years, didn't bother to serve me any vegetables at family dinner at his house - because apparently I hate them. Yes. When I was four I refused to eat peas, however since then I've been married twice and lived on four different continents, so quite a lot has changed including the fact that I like vegetables. He still sees me as a pea avoider. Hmm

I actually find it quite difficult working out how to behave around my mother and other family. I'm not sure who they think I am, but assume it's a much younger me, so that's how I end up behaving.

MistressIggi · 20/10/2013 19:13

It sometimes helps me to think, if a friend said that would I be so annoyed - often the answer is no! But again, if it was a friend you wouldn't feel so invested in the relationship when it annoyed you.

Sammie101 · 20/10/2013 19:51

Thank you precious Smile I really feel for you, she sounds like a bit of a nightmare! I don't know what to suggest :(

I have heard of the 5:2 diet and heard lots of people have had good results! I'm just wondering if it will be any good for me as I'm breast feeding and apparently limiting your food by a large amount can damage your supply? I have no idea :-/
I did lose four stone the year before I fell pregnant, just by counting calories and exercising, but I put about 2 and a half stone on during my pregnancy and can't seem to stop eating :( anyway sorry that's a huge sidetrack and whole other thread!

KissesBreakingWave · 21/10/2013 12:14

EBearHug next time she does that, roll your eyes, say "she's losing track of how old I am again", turn to her and in your best loud, clear, slow talking-to-simpletons-foreigners-and-the-very-old voice start asking her dementia diagnosis questions about what the date is, what day of the week it is and who the current prime minister is.

Preciousdaisybear · 21/10/2013 20:59

sharp I think you have hit the nail on the head. As I grow older the balance of power is shifting and her treating me like this is a last ditch effort to be the most powerful one. And kisses next time she behaves like this I will follow your advice.
Thanks everyone for letting me rant and for making me feel better x

OP posts:
EBearhug · 21/10/2013 20:59

Kisses, if she starts talking to me, I'll be doing a whole lot more than just rolling my eyes - she died 4 years ago, so I'd be jumping out of my skin!

Actually, when she went into hospital the last time, the paramedic was asking her if she knew what day of the week it was, and I thought, "She's been off work sick for a couple of weeks, and it's just been a bank holiday weekend - nobody knows what day of the week it is!" My mother just said, "Yes."

KissesBreakingWave · 22/10/2013 10:46

Should've realised the significance of the past tense. Sorry.

helzapoppin2 · 22/10/2013 17:55

Oh, god, yes! No mum, she died a long time ago, but my mum in law always reduces me to a pouty teenager and I am 50+

helzapoppin2 · 22/10/2013 17:57

Yes in recognition, not YABU!
If anyone asks me a question my mum in law answers for me. Grrrrrr!

IceNoSlice · 22/10/2013 18:12

YADNBU. It's nice to hear other people feel like this. My mum is a great one for "But you don't like olives/wine/coffee!" Well, no mum, I didn't when I lived at your house but that was 14 years ago! She'll bring things like a jar of mixed herbs or a bag of dusters to my house because she assumes I won't have any. I have a very well stocked spice cupboard (ok, so they don't get used as much as I like to think they do but still!).

It is also not just her but the whole family. My brother takes the remote control off me and changes channel, just as he did as a teenager. Rude sod.

I agree about the parental power thing - though I think it is subconscious in my mum's case. She's annoying but not deliberately trying to belittle me.

putyoursocksON · 22/10/2013 19:22

I have two boys, demanding job, workaholic husband, do volunteering etc etc. My mother said to me once 'I really think what you need to do is cut your grass twice a week'.

Mmmm, thanks for that!

New posts on this thread. Refresh page