yeah, I think my mother did this to me. she would also say stuff to me like, she liked a suit I had, that it would look better on her than me. so I gave her my best linen suit. came back a couple years later to find it wrinkled up at the bottom of the suitcase she took it home in. it was as if she just wanted to take it AWAY from me, she didn't even want it for herself. We talked about it years later, she said it SHOULD make me feel good to know that someone else wants what I have. I said, not if that someone else is your mother.

so - say what you mean. it's hard enough to get the right meaning across when you say it straight, let alone bass-ackwards.