I am completely inept at dealing with my mother.

Sweet girl, I am right there with you. It's so frustrating. However (observe my years of therapy paying off), I wouldn't say that *you* are inept; I'd say that the relationship between the 2 of you isn't conducive to healthy interaction.

And I seriously don't mean that as a bunch of psychobabble -- I mean it for real. Bad interaction between the 2 of you is NOT your fault.

I am completely inept at dealing with my mother.

She knows right where your buttons are, she installed them. You will never have similar power over her so just quit trying.

One of mine involved a serial killer who peeled his victims' skin off. My dream was following the loose cannon detective called in to take him down when all else had failed. He got partnered up with a naive young blonde rookie, who just happened to fit the profile of all the previous victims. Long story short, she got kidnapped and it turned out that the hard-as-nails detective was the serial killer, and the rookie woke up strapped to a chair in a room lined with the skins of his victims.

I blame Tim.

well, clearly.

Timelies. Still no power. I seriously think we'll be that last little group of people who receive power sometimes during the end of November. I have no faith right now.

Also

One of mine involved a serial killer who peeled his victims' skin off. My dream was following the loose cannon detective called in to take him down when all else had failed. He got partnered up with a naive young blonde rookie, who just happened to fit the profile of all the previous victims. Long story short, she got kidnapped and it turned out that the hard-as-nails detective was the serial killer, and the rookie woke up strapped to a chair in a room lined with the skins of his victims.

I would blame Tim as well.

I know what some of these issues are (perfectionism, fear of conflict, a tendency to take on more than I can do), but it seems like knowing them is less than half the battle.

Oh yeah, oh G-d yeah. I think its one part depression and three parts bad habit borne out of depression and some part me just being a weenie.

Quick Fun Fix: Assign self dorky little project that can be finished in 1 hour. Enjoy the process and allow results to be not-quite-as-good as if you'd spent two weeks fiddling with it. Doesn't resolve the underlying problems, but at least you get to do an end run around them.

I am completely inept at dealing with my mother.

I think most of us are. {{{Nora}}}. Also, what Trudy said.

I am a complete idiot. I wasn't scheduled to work today. I transposed Friday and Saturday for Thursday and Friday. So, I ended up getting some errands done instead.

In mothers I am fortunate. NSM with Dear Old Dad. It's hard even if we are both working at it.

Puppies! Squirrel!

SO CUTE! But also, kind of a The Fox and The Hound thing going on...except, they're Papillons, so they won't ever hunt a thing.

ND, your mother calls you at work?

Is that a normal mother thing to do?

Is that a normal mother thing to do?

My mother calls me constantly. When I was at Borders I told her she had to stop calling me or I was going to get fired. It was the only thing that made her stop.

ND, your mother calls you at work?

yeah, I hate it. I don't think it ought to be a normal mother thing to do...

but, in her defense, she's been trying to get in touch with us and we've not been home (on site at a conference) I got her out of the habit of calling me when she would call and I would be total bitchcakes to her, this past spring/summer.

I think this call may have put it back there.