Yes, I’ve done this before, and it does work with my mom. She likes hearing good news and light conversation.

Maybe it’s me that makes it go bad.

When she called to want to have a political rant conversation, I could have handled it better. When I insulted her by saying I don’t care about her facebook posts, that was antagonistic of me. But, it really gets to me how full of herself she is about that, and how she insists of reading to me what she writes.

Then when she called back to ask me if it was true how I didn’t contact my cousin, I said it was, I apologized to my mom (for my bad behavior reflecting on her parenting, I suppose). But, then when it hit me how she was just stirring up trouble by calling to tell me what my aunt said, it caused me to tell her that was not helpful, instead hurtful, and how can I fix the situation now that I’ve been told off?

If I can remember, in the heat of the discussion, that criticizing my mother is only going to blow up in my face, then I can just hang up the phone.

But, it just doesn’t matter! So I told off her and my dad. Nothing came of it. Everyone will act like it didn’t happen. Nothing lost, nothing gained.