I am so upset right now. I need validation big time.

A neighbor of mine (a guy, in his 50s or 60s) who I barely know, but that I've been friendly with said hello today to me from his balcony. I left soon after, but sent him a text saying that I thought it was nice that he's cleaning up for earth day, and to have a good day (I'd been sort of abrupt in our IRL conversation and felt guilty). He sent me back a text, that said something like this: "thanks miss starry!" He also referred to me as "kiddo," (I'm almost 35), and said "Love you. Uncle _____ ." I didn't think it was a mis-text. Because he referred to me by name, and also called me "kiddo" when he saw me today. I just thought it was really weird he'd say "love you" even just as a joke, as we barely know each other. Just as a backstory, too, the very first time I met him, he told me his job company is hiring (he'd asked what I do, I said I'm unemployed), and that he'd be a reference for me. It was weird because that was literally like, I mean, I didn't know the guy. He didn't know me. Anyway, his text today just really took me by surprise and weirded me out.

Anyway. I told my mom what happened with the text today. Big mistake. She said "well maybe he just thinks of you as a niece." I was pissed. SO pissed. I am so pissed at her I am deciding not to go to a family function today. I need time away. This is serious. If anyone knows my backstory, or has seen my posts in Arbie's thread about being invalidated by one's mother, you will know that my mom has said the most invalidating things to me my whole life. I am so sick of it its not even funny. Its sickening to me. I guess I broke today. If this doesn't seem like a big deal to someone else, I don't care. It's a huge deal to me. I cannot deal with my mom's invalidation anymore. And I think I need to set some sort of boundary, for myself, with her. And stick to it. It's hard because she's so nice, and we are close. But this is always going to be the way she is. And I think it'd be really healthy for me to find a way to back away from her.

What kind of boundary should I set with her? I think that not telling her things that I know will bother me if she doesn't validate, is a good start. Why that's so hard, I don't know. Because today, for instance, I was like, in my head "don't tell her. don't tell her." But I told her, and then I got hurt.