health and fitness: I want a happier relationship with my mother, but she thinks I’m evil

vendredi 28 août 2015

I want a happier relationship with my mother, but she thinks I’m evil

My mother believes I ruined her life with my teenage behaviour. How can I move things on? Annalisa Barbieri advises a reader

During my childhood, my mother was incredibly overprotective. She was unable to have any other children so we were very close, but to the point where she would not like me having friends of my own. As I hit my teenage years, I started to rebel: choosing friends she did not approve of, having boyfriends, drinking, smoking, staying out late and not going to school.

Her reaction to this was incredibly intense. She would check my room every day from top to bottom for “evidence”. She would open letters from friends and turn up at school unannounced. I spent most of my teenage years grounded. It was similar when I went to university: all my bank statements were sent to her so she could see what I spent my money on (my parents did financially support me at uni, but my money was stopped if I didn’t answer the phone or she found something on the statement she didn’t like), and she would call me every day.