My mother is here this week and she has been very helpful but she and I don’t see completely eye to eye on everything.

She has been trying to be very open and to listen to me when I tell her that something bothers me which has been very nice. Although, she only incorporates a portion of what I say into her behavior.

The biggest thing that I am trying to coach her on is to listen to my son and what he is really saying. He is only 2 1/2 but his language skills are quite good. However, sometimes he doesn’t have the vocabulary to fully express himself so you have to be willing to not take everything so literally.

Anyway, one of the most painful things from childhood has to do with some pretty horrible abuse that I had to deal with from one of her many boyfriends. I am over the abuse but what still scars me today is the fact that when I tried to talk to my mother she showed me pictures of children who had boiling water poured on them and told me that what I was dealing with was not abuse because it wasn’t as bad as the pictures.

That is an extreme example of what she tends to do with most things I try to talk to her about. She immediately trys to dismiss it away or describe something that is worse. I think that she may be trying to show me that things could be worse so I should look at the bright side but I wish sometimes she would just listen to me and no more.

Ok, I obviously just had a flashback… that was pretty freeflow and I thought of deleting it but decided to let it go.