my MOM is driving me...crazy!

a mother/daughter love/hate thing

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

My Mom is Driving Me Crazy!

I am not by nature a complainer. When pressed, I'll share problems and pain with my husband or one or two close friends. But lately, I've felt the need to complain about....my mother. I feel guilty about this, so I'm going to complain anonymously.

She's a wonderful woman, truly. She's 72 years old, a widow, an
d a warm, funny, and generous person. She has lived with me, my husband, and our teenaged son and daughter for 12 years now. It's a pretty good set-up; she has a mother-in-law type bedroom at the back of the house. She is pretty independent, can still drive and shop and take care of herself.

The problem is...she drives me crazy!

It's really just the little petty things...things she's unwilling or unable to change.

I know I'm not the only one in this situation. A friend writes a blog about those of us caught in the sandwich generation called "Sometimes I Feel Like a Piece of Baloney." Lisa Samson wrote a good novel called Club Sandwich. And there are days I definitely feel the squeeze.

So, I'm going to use this blog just to occasionally, and safely, complain about my Mom and the sometimes wacky things she does.

Here are a few recent examples:
  • She's taken to carrying her cordless phone around in a fuzzy pink sock. It protects the phone if she drops it, and it's easy for her to hold on to the leg end. But, still.
  • Today we went to lunch and I noticed she was carrying a green Whole Foods reusable grocery sack filled with stuff. It turns out she's using it as a purse. "I like it because everyone will know I'm Irish."
  • And that leads me to my last complaint for the day: my Mom thinks she's an Irish princess. No, really.
And those are some of the reasons why...my Mom is driving me crazy!