i have felt for a long time as if i was the worst person ever when interacting with my mother, because she would always make me so angry seemingly for no reason and then turn that anger against me, but, ultimately, ive come to the conclusion that she is also a human, and she is also deeply flawed and not always correct and same goes for my dad, they're all human growing up with their own biases and (in my culture, but also in general) parents are often seen as infallible authority and whenever their kids question that, they get punished and their feelings of frustration get dismissed, the 'always listen to your parents' kinda thing and — i don't know where im going with this, so sorry for the ramble, but i think the point im trying to make is that now you are both adults and therefore both equally responsible for your behaviours and if you wouldn't let a friend (a fellow adult) talk to you and treat you the way your mother treats you then she is just being a bad person towards you because she maintains an air of superiority and authority that is simply not there anymore, she is trying to exert power over you through guilt-trip and unspoken expectations that you no longer need to fulfill as an autonomous adult person because now you CAN make the choice to walk away from her, and she doesn't know how to cope with that, so she's using manipulation tactics to keep you coming back and that's just straight up toxic, but it's not your fault that instead of self-reflecting and approaching you with genuine intent, (like calling you and saying: hey, i missed you, i want to talk to you more, tell me what you've been up to. vs the convo that you actually had) — all of her action towards you are a form of control, ofc you want to break from that and dont want to engage with it, so, yeah, relationships with parents are hard, best of luck! <3
you're sooo right. and i think what it comes down to is, i'm angry and i'm tired. i'm tired of dealing with it, and i'm angry that the only two real choices are: keep dealing with it or dig in deeper. i don't want to teach her how to regulate her emotions or to consider my own. i don't want to hear her say the meanest, pettiest shit and still force light politeness and detachment into my tone. the more she pushes, the more i pull away, which makes her angrier and makes her push harder, and so on and so forth.
to be honest, i really need space from her, and this entire situation. but when i don't call, this happens. even on good days, i'll miss a call and she'll interrogate me about it: what were you doing? you couldn't step away from your friends to talk to me for three minutes? i know you're always on your phone, there's no way you missed my call. etc.
i'm thirty fucking years old.
i'm an only child so i've always had a complex relationship with both my parents, as we all do. she's anxious, he's avoidant. and when i read adult children of emotionally immature parents, one thing that struck me was that i repeated this pattern with my ex. and now, maybe, with that behind me and all i've learned from it, this is the time to move into a different phase of relationship with my parents.
i don't know what it looks like or if i'll be able to achieve it. maybe i will just need to resign myself to the fact that i'm going to have to detach for the rest of her life. maybe i'll keep trying to set these boundaries and causing rifts. maybe i just won't announce it next time and try to...stonewall, i guess. i don't know.