The Writer Inside Me

I will never be able to hold a mature conversation with my mother without it deteriorating into a fight. I got into it with her again today, and I won't lie and say it wasn't over something stupid, because it was. I admit that. But then I made the mistake of being honest with her. I confessed that I didn't like her as much as I used to.

And it's true. She's changed so much-become bitter and unlikable. I know she wasn't always like this. She used to be a lot of fun, and while I've always been Daddy's Girl, I loved and respected her as well. But over the years, I've seen her change into a bitter woman that I can't stand being around for a long period of time.

She has no concept of what it means to have a family and do things for them. My Dad gets along very well with his brother and sisters and my grandparents. My mom barely gets along with her sister, her Dad died when she was young, and her Mom wasn't a very good parent. So she doesn't understand doing something nice for family. To give a specific example-my Aunts and Uncle have decided to buy my grandmother an IPad. Granted, it's kind of a dumb idea because my grandparents are about as tech-savvy as my dogs(trying to explain Facebook to my grandpa is like trying to explain Monet to a monkey), but it's a nice gesture. My Dad's share for the Ipad is $90. A bit much, but he's used my grandma's car rent-free for nearly a year, and in the long run, it's a fair trade.

Mom went ballistic. Apparently, Christmas has been ruined. We can't have a fancy dinner(even though my Dad's such a good cook that he could make even a cheap cut of meat good), she and Dad can't exchange presents(which they haven't done for years  so why she's mad I don't know), and so on and so forth. To be fair, both Dad and I are convinced she's got S.A.D. She likes the "idea" of Christmas, but nothing else.

I still have yet to learn that "Tell me how you really feel" is a trap when it comes out of her mouth. Because when I do, it inevitably blows up in my face.