Did you hear me?

It's easy to slip into the mode of feeling sorry for myself.  Especially when I feel like I'm not supposed to speak, but just do.

My mom, now 81, will cut me off in the middle of a sentence, sometimes loudly talking over me.  It's like she's trying to squash anything I'm saying, as though I'm not supposed to speak at all, and if I do, what the heck do I know?  How dare I even show I have an opinion or have any knowledge that might be useful!

...especially when it comes to where things are or what happened...

I can't blame her poor memory on age; it's always been there, but it just seems to be more pronounced now.  Actually, all of her behavior seems to be more exaggerated now.  Her poor memory I really blame on her selection about what she wants to remember -- or how.  She's a drama queen, remember, so when she regurgitates something from memory it can sometimes take on a pretty warped recitation.  And a lot of times it can be twisted for the moment's mood and audience.  Frustrating!

But many times it's interrupting me to ask for information that I was just telling her.  If she had listened instead of interrupting, she would have already known.

I sometimes wonder if you revert back to childhood when you get older.  My teenager also does about the same thing.  I sometimes feel I'm living with two teenagers.  It's like they don't have the patience to wait for me to finish a sentence, so butt in with the question that my sentence was already answering.  Or that I don't know what I'm talking about, that they both know more than anyone and the nerve of me for even speaking knowledge or expressing an opinion!

And how come I didn't tell them what time or where we were going?  Uh-huh, another case of hearing but not paying attention or interrupting or talking at the same time.  Or even walking out of the room in the middle of information being imparted.

There are times (yes, even to my mother) that I say, "Did you hear me?"  Most of the time I try to say it as kindly as possible, but come on, if you're an adult, just being asked that no matter how nicely has got to put one on the attack.  But when it's important, I do have to make sure the information was absorbed.  The times I'm not as nice in asking that is when I'm just so tired of repeating myself in little bits and pieces all day long for the both of them.

I love them both dearly, but I'll tell you there are days when I wonder why I bother even being in the same room with either of them.

Oh, I know why...  they want me to be there to do something for them -- like cook or the laundry, or keep them "company" while watching TV.