Should I realize this tells me something about my mother?
I have long heard that what others think of you often says more about who they really are--ie, that they believe others are like them. I have recently come to see how true this is firsthand, as someone close to me has been accusing me of ridiculous things for years, things I never considered doing. Come to find out, this person himself had been doing those things, so he assumed I might be, too, and was quite suspicious.
It got me thinking about all the times my mother accused me of lying, while I was growing up. Partly because I know what was in my mind and heart all those years, I believe my children are pretty decent kids. Does this mean that, because my mother always assumed I was lying (and I was a very honest child), does that mean she did a lot of lying as a child herself, and so assumed her kids were doing the same to her?
Lately, as I've looked more deeply at her behaviors as an adult and over the years, I've thought more about what she has told me about her childhood, and I think she was jealous, bitter, and resentful as a child, too.
I don't know if it's really important. It's such a small part of the overall picture. But I have just recently started to realize that she believed I was a liar, as I've seen how many other ugly things she believes of me, and how many perfectly normal incidents she has twisted in her mind into proof of my character flaws.