NOW THAT I’M 65, TRA-LA

If you’ve read my post “Choosing my Parents,” you know how much I adore and admire my 92-year-old mom.

Nonetheless, now that I’m 65, you would think I wouldn’t get annoyed when she talks to me in a tone. Not an unpleasant tone, one that’s off-putting only to me. As in What? You haven’t had breakfast yet?Pork Chops Wall Decal Removable Graphic

Admittedly I have an eating schedule different from hers. She goes to dinner shortly after I’ve finished breakfast. At 11 p.m. when Mom and I have our daily phone chat, I’m often starting to broil a pork chop. Sometimes she’ll ask what I had for dinner.

“Pork chops,” I lie.

It’s the same kind of thing when I’m visiting her. On the day I’m leaving for the airport at 11:30, I head out at 9:30 for a half hour walk. “You always have to fit everything in,” she’ll say.

Fitting everything in was true when I was in my teens, 20’s, 30’s, 40’s, and 50’s, so I can see how she thinks that.

“But Ma,” I say, “I’m 65, I don’t do that anymore.” I know she’s thinking, “Yeah, like fun.”

(Do you know that expression “like fun?” I never hear it anymore. It has a similar sarcastic meaning as “Yeah, sure.”)

And as I’m packing up, she’ll ask, “You’re wearing that?” It’s the bookend to the welcome greeting “What’s with your hair?”

To my mom’s credit, she doesn’t seem to care whether I get married again. She can see I’m happy . . . even when I’m not.

  • In what ways do your parents persist in annoying you?
  • In what ways do you persist in annoying your kids, whether you mean to or not?
  • In what ways to you persist in annoying your parents?

UNRELATED ANNOUNCEMENT: See my latest post on Home Goes Strong, “DOES YOUR BED MAKE YOU HAPPY? A GUIDE TO BUYING A BED, BEDDING & BEYOND.”

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