The constant mention of money by the mother in this piece and in a ton of the comments made by parents is super gross. Sorry, but your relationship with your kids is not some paid subscription plan. The not-so-humble bragging mixed with faux-martyrdom is just too much.

I don’t know how it got to be that kids are supposed to owe their parents for their support. Like, where did that attitude come from? Obviously I’m grateful to my parents for taking care of me and doing what they did, but why would I owe them?

Whether your choose to have kids or you have them by accident, that’s…

It pisses people off that they are no longer able to command your attention. I mean, when you lived under your parents’ roof, if you didn’t do what they wanted, they could threaten eviction. Unfortunately many parents believe this to mean their children enjoy being around them all the time, instead of understanding…

She does.

I think it’s perfectly fine to want your kids to keep in touch with you, especially if you make sure you’re not asking for too much of a time commitment. It seems like the mother here might just be forgetting that it’s hard to settle into a communications routine after a major life change.

There kind of is reason to assume the mom is viewing this encounter through her own lens though, right? Two sides to every story and whatnot? “Lie” is kind of a strong word, but the daughter would probably describe their relationship very differently than the mom did.

Here’s the thing about gifts and strings. If someone gives me something and says I expect x in return, then I better provide x if I accept the gift. But if they give me something and just expect that I will provide something in return, then not only am I not obligated to do so, I might not even know the expectatin is…

It sounds like you didn’t have parents who used the nice things they did for you as a manipulative tool to be revoked whenever you failed to behave in exactly the way they wanted, which is super awesome. But for people whose parents offer nice things that are actually a method of control, it doesn’t feel “bratty” to…