Oh, my parents...
It seems that small changes have been made, but bigger walls have been put up, shelling my mom off from the world a little more. I suppose there isn't much I can do about it.
It is baseball season and my son and daughter are both on their respective little league teams. Between working full time, school, and being the "taxi" and "head cheerleader" for my kids, I end up with significantly less time to care for the little things that I feel are less important (i.e. the laundry pile had doubled in size, the dishes fall a half day behind, I neglected running the vacuum yesterday, etc. etc.). Anyway, my mom likes to ridicule my home at every chance normally, but my busy schedule opens me up to EXTRA EXTREME ridicule and critique, which I generally just roll my eyes and sigh and move on with my life. The other day, though, she stated that she wished that I made enough money to afford a maid, since I obviously couldn't maintain my household, and that the pizza box in the trash can out front was an obvious sign that I don't even know how to feed my family. So, I snapped a bit. I told her that she isn't welcome in my home if she can't stop her critiques. I have a billion things I wanted to say, like "I domake enough money to afford a maid, but I gave it all to you..."; like "There are things I find more important than laundry, like having a caring and supportive relationship with my children..."... my "I should have said" list goes on and on, but I felt that I had said what was sufficient to stop the negative comments and I let it go. Anyway, now she won't talk to me at all (2 weeks). Oh well. No matter what, she is never satisfied. I'm glad they know that I won't give them $ and I'm glad she knows I won't accept ridicule and negativity, but this is going to be a LONG life if peace can't be made :(
Sorry, just venting.