Mom

It's Mother's Day (and I've had a wonderful one with my husband and my boys). Several years ago my mom suffered from a loss of oxygen to her blood. It's caused her personality to alter greatly. I really wish I could be more understanding, but the way she treats me honestly makes me want to cry. Her favorite food is Indian, and we often take her to an Indian restaurant in Austin on her birthday and Mother's Day. This year, Erik and I decided to have a relaxing weekend at home with our boys. We offered to take Mom out to Greek food nearby (her second favorite food), but she refused. Truthfully, traveling to far North Austin with two young boys (interrupting their nap schedule) and having them eat Indian food, is not really so great for us. My boys don't eat Indian food. I'm working on them at home, but for some reason they just can't stand it. So to take my mom out for Indian is really rough on us seeing as my children refuse to eat and don't get a nap. But to my mom, all we're doing is refusing to take her where she wants to go. It's like she's completely forgotten what it's like to have two young children. Of course, she's been this way since the birth of my first. She is completely "me" centric and has no desire to put others first. She often walks away from my kids after a meal or a visit forgetting even to hug them and say goodbye. Yes, I know I should be more tolerant considering her obvious impairment. But truthfully, I want my mom. The mom I knew growing up. I feel robbed of a loving, mutually respectful relationship with her as an adult. I'm pissed that my kids don't have grandparents who can be with them, doing things with them, babysitting them, having them spend the night at their houses. I feel like they got gypped. So my brother and his wife, who are always so attentive to my mom and have so much more in common with her, took her to her favorite Indian restaurant today. And now I'm the one who put my kids ahead of my mom and refused to take her.