You never tell me anything!

[Guest guest]

" My nada would complain bitterly from the time I was 3 that I didn't

talk to her about things. Well of course not, she couldn't fathom what

was going on in my head. She was too busy rampaging to stop and think.

Even if she could, she wouldn't put up with it. Anger was to be

squashed, sadness banished, indignation punished. "

This struck such a chord with me. Nada always complained that I never

talked to her about things. I learned early about how she'd lie about

what I said and manipulate the words I said, and if what I said was

not in line with what she thought was " right " , I'd get berated. So I

guess she was right, but I wasn't about to get more psychologically

beat up than I had to. In college, when I'd call home, sometimes my

dad would answer and she wouldn't be home. We'd have a decent

conversation and things would be fine. The INSTANT she got home and

found out we had a conversation without her, she would call me to

basically reiterate what dad and I had already talked about. She

always made a point of keeping me on the phone a little bit longer

than I had been on the phone with Dad, possibly to demonstrate to him

how much more we girls had to talk about. And it was always a

conversation about nothing: her saying nothing meaninful, and me

meaningfully saying nothing. Anybody else have similar experiences?