Mothers and Daughters

Sorry for the lack of posting. It has been an interesting week, to say the least.

I got a call from my teenaged daughter the other day. She was asking if she could spend the night at my house. I told her sure, and asked what was up. She told me she was at a friend's house in my neighborhood, and just wanted to crash here. I told her it was OK with me, as long as it was OK with her mom. She assured me it was.

About 15 minutes later, I get a call from my ex. She was absolutely livid. She was carrying on about some tile or something, and how she gets no respect from her kids, and they walk all over her, and blah-de-dah. She had a weird relationship with her mother. They were best friends. Heck, her mom was the maid of honor at our wedding, if that gives you any idea. She always thought that was the norm, and would get mad at me when I told her that nobody else in the world is that way. Bottom line, she feels like she and her daughters should be buddies. Gee, I wonder why her kids don't respect her. She always does whatever the kids want, and then I was always the disciplinarian. Lucky me. So while she was going on and on with her rant, I just wanted to say "Maybe if you spent more time trying to be their parent then their best friend, they would respect you more," but I bit my tongue.

Whatever it is my daughter did not only got her KFMA ticket thrown away (KFMA day is a giant day-long concert), but it got her thrown out of the house. So she has been staying with me. From a selfish standpoint, it has been great. My oldest and I get along really well. She has been helping me around the house, and it is nice to have some company. However, I need to find out what is going on.

Last night, after dinner, I ask her what the deal is with her and her mom. She insists she doesn't know. All she knows is that her mom is furious with her, and she has no clue why. I was married to that woman for 13 years. There has been more than one occasion I was sleeping on the couch, and didn't have any idea why I was in trouble. So it is entirely feasible that my daughter doesn't know what she did wrong.

She has a dentist appointment today. Her mom is taking her. This will be the first time they have talked since the blowup. I told my daughter to find out why she is in trouble, and that it is her responsibility to correct the problem. And maybe, if she does, she might get to go to the concert after all, but don't count on it. We'll see what happens.

What is the deal with mothers and daughters? I grew up with all boys in my family, and I don't remember all this drama. Oh well, I only have about 4-5 more years of this, then I get to go through it with my younger daughter. Woohoo. Still, it feels good to know that she is still willing to come to me when she has problems. I hope that continues.

This concludes the Dr. Phil segment of my blog. We will now return to our regularly scheduled programming.