My mother doesn't enter the same room as the person she wishes to have a conversation with. She just talks away even though I'm in another room, or even not there at all. Then she holds me responsible for knowing what she said as if we had a conversation. She'll take action henceforth based on my assumed receipt of the message. If I say "What?", she'll just repeat herself from wherever she happens to be rather than entering the room that I'm currently in, then get angry at me for saying "What?" Although I can usually hear much of what she's saying, I still say "what" to try and get her to walk into the room that I'm currently in so we can have a conversation.

Also, she inevitably asks me a question, and if I try yelling an answer across the house, she'll say "What?" or get mad because I'm shouting. And she's hard of hearing and doesn't wear a hearing aid, so I usually have to repeat myself a few times even when we're in the same room.

It's always been like this since I can remember, but it's like living in Carol Burnett skit although I don't remember Eunice talking from the other side of the door.

Whenever there's any annoyance expressed on my part, she'll always identify the assumed "real" source of the "grumpiness", such as "Did you have a boring day?" or "I know you're frustrated about such and such", in other words, she can never be the "real" cause of anyone else's agitation.