The question I am a 43-year-old woman. I have a happy marriage and amazing kids. During lockdown my 76-year-old mother, who is a widow, has coped well, launching herself into reading, gardening and clearing out stuff in the house, with never a word of self-pity.
Now that things have opened up and we can visit again, the distance requires that we stay over. My problem is that, on returning to my childhood home, I revert to being a teenager.
I never felt that either parent was interested in me. My mother talks over me constantly, does not listen and launches herself into projects while we are there, thereby subconsciously ensuring that she does not have to engage with me or my family. At the same time, she waxes lyrical about how she loves having us there. I get angrier and angrier with her. I come over as a petulant, impatient and angry child. She still does not want to know about me as a person. However, she hangs on my husband’s every word, with smitten eyes, listening intently.
I…