So true. I would drive 15 hours to see my mom, and when I got there, she’d ask if I wanted to go outside with her while she smoked. Instead of telling her that random trips outside to sit in the cold and smell cigarettes was one of the reasons I quit.

But, as if in a trance, id follow her outside, where she would tell me everything I was doing wrong…as a person, as a mom, as a woman, as a single mom, why I was poor, why she decided to put my brother’s wife through school, and why I didn’t decide to improve my life. Why id mess up my kids, how I was already doing it, why my daughter was bullied, how she actually deserved it (yes, she really did, that ny daughter was obese and needed a diet (not true, not even close…she just wanted little white blonde skinny kids with empty heads so they could act how she wanted) …

Shed start the conversation acting like all was great, and by thr end, everyone was so horrible, poor her, how dare we?

Narcs are hard to have in your family. I had to go no contact so she could not hurt my kids.