What's up with Whatsit

A potential end to crazy-making

I may have officially pissed my mother off. Hurrah! It's horrible to have to say that, and I hate being this way. However, she acts in such a way that I have to love her from a distance sometimes.

1. She treats my grandmother horribly.

2. Once she heard that my brakes need a little maintenance - it's only the back brakes, nothing too terrible that can't wait until payday - she can't shut up about it. She has bitched and nagged at me about my brakes until the word brakes makes me sick.

3. She comes in my house when I am not here, moves stuff around to the point that we don't know where anything is, then wants us to brag on her and give her a bunch of credit for "cleaning up her house." We had to put a note on my little boy's teddy bear asking her not to move him. For some weird reason, she puts all the trash cans in the kitchen.

4. Every time we mention that one of our kids is doing one of their activities after school, like playing a soccer game or cheering, she moans and groans about that and says they don't get enough rest. Every now and then, like last night, we get home at 10:00, but most of the time the kids are in bed by 8:30 or 9:00. I finally told her the other day that what my kids are doing is better than what I used to do, which was sit at home ALL the time. It shut her up on that subject.

5. She wants us to spend every minute of every weekend over at her house and refuses to understand that I need personal time on Saturday sometimes. She gets her feelings hurt and tries to pile on the guilt if I don't want to spend every minute on the earth with her. Then when I AM over there, she is usually moaning and bitching about whatever we have done that doesn't suit her. I started refusing to feel guilt over ANYTHING a few years ago as a result of her trying to put a bunch of guilt on me about everything for so many years.

I am painting her to be a dreadful person. She is capable of being delightful . . . when she wants to.

Anyway, we have done several things lately that didn't suit her idea of the way it ought to be. I didn't call up they guy she wants me to get to fix my brakes and then drive her car to work. She had a key to our front door, but we changed the lock and neglected to give her a new key. We made sure that the side door that she had been getting in and out of was locked instead of left open (we live in a relatively low-crime area and don't have anything anybody would want anyway). These things seem small, but not giving my mother her way even on small stuff is a dreadful affront in her mind. This is fine with me, since it gives me a break from her nagging me about everything that I don't do to suit her.

No doubt everybody who has a good relationship with their mom will think I am crazy. So be it.