Mommy dearest :-/

Last Tuesday I was out at Panera's with my mom and two of our friends who get together once a month for a sort of book club. I got there later than everyone else because of work. I ordered a half a tuna sandwich and a bowl of tomato soup. The checker said, "if you order a drink, you can pick one of the dessert items here for free!". I succumbed and got an iced tea (good) and an m&m cookie (bad, but still under my calorie budget for the day).

I went and sat down. My friend Kristin asked "what's in the bag" (my actual food was still on its way), and I told her some dessert, a cookie. "What kind?" she asked; m&m I said. My mom jumped in, "*Kristin* decided not to get a cookie because *she* went to the gym today!"

Yeah, thanks for that, mom.

I am trying to keep the peace like the good little middle child I am but my mom sure is pissing me off lately. And it's not just for the stuff she's doing today, like the cookie incident. I've been sorting through a closet full of old clothes from my high school days, and coming across pairs of pants and shorts that look so tiny to me now. Specific pairs that I remember wearing from back then. And remember, as in one incident after my first real boyfriend broke up with me, my mom sat me down and told me that in no uncertain terms he had broken up with me because I was fat, and that even if he was attracted to me, it wasn't socially acceptable to be paired up with a fat girl.

Many years later I found out that the real reason he broke up with me was that he's gay. And even if he wasn't, high school relationships are naturally short lived, that's just the way it is, and it's a learning process that everyone goes through. A mother's job is to comfort her children through those events, build up their self-esteem, encourage them to try again. Right? Am I far off here?