
I know this is very, very long, but please, bear with me. I need some advice badly.
Well, I’m in a pickle I guess you could say. My mother is 66 years old. She had a very rough childhood growing up poor in the 1940′s and 50′s and what not and she was in an abusive marriage for nearly 26 years. She had three children. The eldest (my sister) is 45, the second eldest (also my sister) is 42 going on 43. I’m the last child (and the only male of course) and I’m going to be 25 very soon. My mother sacrificed a lot for the three of us and unfortunately for me she has never learned to let go of her children. And my problem is twofold when you consider the fact that my mother has no kind of savings (she has tried) and still has to work. I along with my niece live with my mother in an apartment and I give her 400 dollars monthly plus any money I spend from time to time on groceries, water or take-out for everyone.
I’m dating this wonderful woman for about a year now who is nearly eight years my senior and things are getting quite serious. We’ve already seriously discussed marriage and I love her and she is good to me.
But to my mother, this girl poses a double threat. Not only does she get much of my attention, she also believes that now that I’m dating this woman, we’ll get a house together and that she will have nowhere to live and that I’m spending my money foolishly on her (which isn’t true) and even if it was, she’s worth it.
My mother’s hard life and marriage has made her extremely bitter and she feels that the world owes her for being the best mother ever (do you detect the sarcasm?) and she puts me (mostly since I live with her) and my siblings on guilt trips to places as far as New Zealand. None of my older siblings have houses and to my mother that’s equates to being a drug addict living in a halfway house. She constantly berates my sisters and myself for not getting a home so she can have a place to live.
I’m working on getting a place. I already have over 8000 saved up. I’m just waiting to finish off my car loan which should be sometime late this year or very early next year. The only problem is I don’t want to live with my mother anymore nor do I want her to live with me. She’s one of the most miserable people I’ve ever met and she’s been like this for as long as I can remember. And I really don’t think her having a room in my home would make her any happier. She’s looking for happiness in a house and I don’t think she’s going to find it. Along with guilt trips, she often thinks she’s better off dead and said she understood why one of my relatives wished for it. I was so angry, hurt and frustrated when she said that. For a moment I wanted that wish to come true, but I came to my senses. Another that gets my goat with her is that nothing ever satisfies her, she’s never happy and she constantly compares her “shitty” life to the lives of other single mothers who managed to get homes and whose children manged to get homes who came to Nassau (Bahamas, she migrated from Matthew Town, Inagua) the same time she did.
I know if I marry my girlfriend, my mother will detest the relationship for the foreseeable future. There was one time earlier this year that mother said she never wanted to live with a daughter in law anyway which implied to me that she never wanted me to get married since she wanted me to get a house so she could live with me.
My mother’s bitter attitude has driven a wedge between us and she doesn’t want to let me grow up. She still tries to do everything for me and even my middle sister who is 42 and single and childless brings her laundry there every weekend and my mother washes it all. She spoiled us which made independence difficult for me as a man, especially. She constantly makes her children’s problems her own and is often driven to tears because of it. I’ve tried talking to her, I’ve prayed about it. I’ve asked my older coworkers for advice and I’m fairly certain of what I’m going to do, it’s just that no-one will like it. My eldest sister just recently got married and she sends what she can (which isn’t good enough) and my second sister makes much more than I do but spends her money on expensive clothes, shoes and jewelry. They could do more to help my mother out financially but it looks like everyone expects the issue to fall on my shoulders and I’m intent on not letting that happen. She has two older children who should have been making a way for her. I mean I was I little child when they were in their late twenties for God’s sake.
I can’t tolerate my mother’s negative attitude towards me, my choices and life in general. If I sleep over at my girlfriend’s place, she goes nuts and goes into her bitching mode. “I sacrificed everything for my children and no-one wants to do anything for me. Dogs get treated better than me. I’d be better off dead. I’m a good mother. I’ve done everything right in my life” etc.
I’m at the point where her sob stories and guilt tr
I’m at the point where her sob stories and guilt trips don’t work anymore. I mean, hell, she’s been doing them for over 20 years and it got old. I’m more than ready to move out but I know she need financial help and my sisters need to do more. After reading this epistle, does anyone have any advice for me? I know that if I’m unhappy living with her now, her living with me as a married man will only be worse.
To Emma M:
LOL. Nah, Emma. I don’t have any family in New Zealand. I just said my mother’s awful guilt trips would take you that far.