Originally Posted by
Bernadette 
Even now if my Mom could just LISTEN, genuinely listen, and show interest in what I am saying. If she genuinely apologized for any of the hurts she caused me and my siblings, for her sometimes insane behavior when we were kids, and then gave me space to forgive her, not expect an instant flurry of words of reassurance and praise.
SIGH
yeah this resonates....
My mum does not LISTEN
Oh she talks a LOT... she will briefly pause,pretend to listen to me, and then keep on going on about whatever her version of events is that she wants to believe. It's infuriating.
She also repeats her old stories a lot, and no it's not a getting older thing, its a "her" thing, I can remember it my whole life. I will try to tell her some adventure or happenstance in my life and I will get steamrolled by one of these stories, that I've known by heart since before my adolescence... if I try to redirect her by saying, "yes I know about this", and quickly try to summerize her story to prove it, so that I can get on with what *I* have to say, she just gets louder and keeps on going, talking right over top of me ... so rude and so frustrating. (Not to mention I really do not care about all these stories that are almost always from before I was born and always told like I've never heard them before.... makes me want to scream!)
The child in me, the one she keeps wanting to mother, wants to stomp my feet and yell at her to listen to me!