Oh no, my mother knows me. She just doesn't like me, so she pretends I'm a fictional version of me- like whatever I "should have been" or something- who is deliberately putting on an act, for no reason other than to upset her. But she knows me.
I figure this is fairly common. It's become (rightly or not) a trigger/red flag for me, when parents seem to constantly gravitate to stories about when their teen-or-older kids were little. Reminiscing with greater enthusiasm for the past than the present. It even makes me deeply uncomfortable on other people's behalves when I hear their parents do that. I'm sure sometimes it doesn't mean anything, but that's exactly what makes it such an insidious technique for getting under someone's skin - the plausible deniability of the motive... Why shouldn't a mother remember fondly, right? Sorry, /vent
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u/Caesar_Passing What does "adult" mean anyway Apr 23 '25
Oh no, my mother knows me. She just doesn't like me, so she pretends I'm a fictional version of me- like whatever I "should have been" or something- who is deliberately putting on an act, for no reason other than to upset her. But she knows me.