What are some things about your parents that annoy you?

My mother is a compulsive drama queen and (like yours) has a “too religious” approach to things sometimes.

I’ve noticed that my father can be condescending and a complainer, but I would much rather deal with these characteristics than those of my mother…

My father is a natural born asshole, however, it’s hard to stay mad at him for long because he’s a charming natural born asshole. He’s also a rather negative person – more of a glass half empty kind of man, but considering his own personal circumstances, it’s not too surprising.

I wish my mother would learn to stick up for herself more often. It’s lack of this that caused me to resent her for one thing in particular. I’m working on getting over this resentment though because I don’t think she was equipped with what to do at the time and it would be wrong to blame her. She’s just allowed her passive nature to interfere with her judgement and with being proactive about certain things. She’s a powerful woman and when she speaks, people listen, but it’s lack of her voice that allows people to walk all over her. I hate that because she’s a good person and doesn’t deserve it. Stick up for yourself, dangnabbit!

GQ :)

The list would be shorter if I listed what doesn’t annoy me about my mother. But I do love her.

Well my Dad I never see, haven’t done for many years now.Long story, boring, moved on long ago.My Mum, well she has this uncanny habit of dredging up embarassing stories of when I was a kid whenever me the wife & kids are round her house.That & old photos, I mean i’m sure the wife has heard the tales & seen the photos dozens of times but still the jokes on me. Bless, love you Mum xx.

The only thing that annoys me is that they are not still around to annoy me.

You will understand this one day.

My mom is very strict and there is not even slight bending to her rules. She sometimes puts her suitors over her children (like she cancelled my psychological assesment appointment at the last minute because she’s going to florida for 4 days with a man she’s (very very casually) dating for the graduation of someone she doesn’t even know). Not buying groceries for long stretches of time so I eat things like gravy as my only meal. teasisng me by pointing out the things about myself I’m already depressed about (incompetent in the kitchen, fat, large breasts, never hang out with friends).

My dad is overly involved in my future. I appreciate the concern but he is always peppering me with questions and won’t allow me to figure it out myself. Constantly mentions the college I dropped out of, I’m doing really well and will graduate in a year but he won’t stop mentioning my failure. Overall he is much more laid back than my mom though and we bump heads more out of our similarities than differences.

My mother is manipulative emotionally.

My father is dead.

I would love for them to still be around to annoy me, but sadly they have now died.
Make the most of them, appreciate them, they won’t be around forever.
Never do anything towards them that you may one day regret.

They are too good to me.

Ok, that really does not annoy me. :-)

Thanks to everyone for your answers.

Please note that the question isn’t “OMG I hate my parents they’re the worst, are yours the worst, too?”. As I said in the details, nobody is perfect, and recognizing the imperfections in someone does not mean you cannot love them.

In other words, lighten up.

First of all, my mother and I are the best of friends. I’m going to see a movie with her in a few hours because neither of us knows anyone else who wants to see it. :)

That being sad, she does two things that make me want to punch her in the snoot. First, she can get weirdly paranoid for no reason. When I had the flu last year, she was convinced that I was pregnant simply because I was throwing up. For two solid days she kept telling me I had to be pregnant and that’s why I was puking so much. To her credit, she apologized when I broke down in tears and told her that she was scaring the hell out of me and she felt awful for scaring me.

However, even worse than her random bouts of paranoia is how she speaks of my grandmother. My mom hates her mother and tells me about it as often as she can. This caused some nasty fights between us in the past but, I am happy to say that she almost never does this anymore as I no longer live at home so there are fewer opportunities.

The only thing about my dad that bothers me is that we don’t spend much time together. This really bother’s me because he’s a fireman, so every second we spend together is priceless.

My mom has something to say about everyone; only she is ever right. “Your grandma is too religious. She never spent any time with me.” “You need to go to church. There’s something wrong with you. I understand your beliefs, I just don’t care. You just think you’re in a relationship.” About my girlfriends: “All Rachel does is eat. It’s her fault you’re a crud. You’re always a smartass when you’re around her. No wonder no one likes Ellie; look at how she carries herself!” Oh, & I really hate how she gets around tequila.

And they can never get along. But I love them!

@Draconess25: What seems so funny about the statement “you only think you’re in a relationship” is that, well, that’s kind of the definition of a relationship. They also think they’re in a relationship with you.

Mine keep being dead. Pain in the ass when you want to ask a question.

@KatawaGrey I pointed that out to her, & she told me to get out of her room.

My mom is a chain smoker and refuses to restrain herself around others, even her grandchildren. She’s very self-centered. She’s always done the least work possible to contribute to the family… unless it’s something she enjoys. She used to spend what little money we had on whatever hobby had manifested of late- she still does this and I worry about her and my dad’s retirement. She’s never supportive of her children’s decisions, unless it’s something she personally approves of or has had a hand in, and meddles in their lives- parenting, relationships, eating habits, yet she’s not attentive to her own. All that effort to judge and meddle, and she rarely asks if we’re happy, what’s going on with us, how our jobs are going, about other family and friends. We can drive the 2.5 hrs to see her after months of not seeing her and if it’s not about food or her latest hobby, she will act disinterested in talking about anything until given the opportunity to change the subject to something she enjoys. Most other discussions turn into her giving unwelcome advice on stuff she has no idea about. She spares no feelings, even of those she is supposed to love.

Thanks for letting me get that out. If I don’t once a month, I’ll turn into a pumpkin. It took me a long time to figure out why I don’t get along with her very well, and it’s good to remind myself so I know what to ignore when I visit. I don’t hate my mom, but distance definitely makes the heart grow fonder. That’s fonder, believe it or not.

The only thing that bugs me about my dad is that he puts up with my mom and doesn’t stand up for himself. He works his ass off for her, and she treats him like an employee a lot of the time, rather than a husband. He’s a fucking saint.

I’m done complaining, I swear.

My mom complains about my dad 364 days a year and gets upset when I don’t think to wish them a happy anniversary. She also tends to be overly prescriptive about how to do things and how not to ruin things.

My dad’s conversations tend to be comprised of the contents of that day’s newspaper.

After reading some of this stuff, I’m feeling much better about my parents.

My mother refuses to admit that she’s wrong. For as long as I can remember, she has never said, “I’m sorry” or “my mistake” once. It’s kind of a pain and causes a lot of arguments.

My father has very intense anger issues. Also, if you ask him a question, it can take him minutes (literally minutes) to respond because he’s “thinking of what to say”.

@boots Mothers tend to be like that.

@bob_ Win-go, man.

My mother’s OCD ways, projecting them onto others (such as cleaning the house excessively..ALL the time, example: coming in your room at 7am when you are sleeping and waking you up to tell you to do things.)
Oh along the lines of waking you up, she’ll just walk in..and ask “are you sleeping?” over and over, louder and louder..until you actually wake up. Nice.
She also cannot take an ounce of criticism, god forbid you say one thing “negative” to her, she’ll cry and act like you are the worst person ever..but she is an extremely mean person. She will make fun of you, point out all your flaws, make you feel like dirt. But that’s okay in her mind. She’s very selfish.

@Draconess25 @hug_of_war Sounds like you both need ((hugs)).

Mine are long gone. They were so distant towards me that I never really identified anything to be annoyed about.

My dad is an armchair commander. Do this, do that or my personal favorite we need to do this or that, knowing his butt won’t leave that chair unless the house is on fire. Mom is a victim, has always been the victim, and will always be a victim. She is also in charge of everything and everyone she brushes up against, no small feat for a victim.

My Mom has annoyed me in so many ways for so many years and now she is dying and I’m surprisingly saddened.

@stranger_in_a_strange_land Yay! <<hugs>>

I’m in @marinelife‘s boat – my dad’s dead and no, it’s not like that for everyone @john65pennington…I do not miss him being around to annoy me/neglect me…my mother and I have had issues since I was 13 – I’m 26 now and I can no longer stand her, whatsoever and am moving out.

@ubersiren Holy crap! I have the same exact situation at home! Except, my Mom is the saint lol

My MOM is ocdc, ornery, controlling, emotional and abusive, and sometimes very self-centered. But she is 91 and entitled?? and a martyr

My Mom was really wonderful and did her very best, but she smoked my entire life, although was as considerate about it as possible. She also longed to return to California, and talked about it her entire life, but did nothing.

My Dad was quiet and stern, but he let us know by his actions how much he loved us. He was also a life long smoker.

They both passed on 25 years ago, and I miss them.

convenient ignorance

My mother drives like this http://www.ntoddblog.org/photos/uncategorized/2007/09/19/mrtoadbigger.jpg

@Neizvestnaya LOL. My mother was a terrible driver too. Actually a kind of scary driver at times. I think driving frightened her and her being overly cautious, combined with a degree of space-caseness (if you looked up absent-minded professor in the dictionary there would be a picture of her next to the entry), led to some rather harrowing moments for me in the passenger seat.

My mom is a constant worrywart.

My dad is an enabler.

I still love them dearly.

My mom thinks she knows the answer to everything… but she really just likes the sound of her own voice. She preaches ALL the time! I hate it. Most of the time she has no idea what she’s talking about. Another thing that gets on my nerves is that she talks to herself about other people negatively behind their backs… while other people are around so we can all hear her. It’s retarded. I tell her to stop and she insists she was just complaining about something else.

I wish I could read my sons’ answers to this. I think I’d try really hard to shorten the list.

My Mom was wonderful.

My Dad is in it for himself.

My mother is an alcoholic and my father is obsessed with money.

My Father was generally a good man but became increasingly selfish as time went on. He lied often to protect my mother and was more than willing to throw “loved ones” under the bus on her behalf. He was very afraid of being alone and therefore never stood up to her. He’s dead now.

My Mother lies pathologically and manipulates those around her to her own ends. She has an extremely volatile temper and was very free with the wooden spoons when I was a kid. She is vindictive, holds grudges and is strangely secretive. She can never be wrong and has never apologized for anything to the best of my knowledge. She also chain smokes like a chimney.

For the flip-side, see here

@cprevite eesh, it sounds like our mothers would get along famously.

I forgot to mention that on occasion, I’m called a “worthless fuck” by my mother.

@TheOnlyNeffie: I’ve heard that from a few jellies. I’m sure my mother would love to meet more folk like her.

To be a fly on the wall.

It seems to be relatively uncommon, but I liked my parents largely. There were few things that I disliked, but there were still a few:

My mom was way too obsessive about cleanliness. She would get so angry at us for not keeping our rooms clean when we were younger and then as we got older, she realized that she was too obsessive over it and stopped with that. It wasn’t that bad, but it was kind of annoying. It just always seemed so “naggy”. We always ended up cleaning in the end, even if she didn’t nag us to do it, so I just didn’t understand the point.

My dad could often get “absorbed” in computer problems or work-related things and he would just ignore me or my mom sometimes. I would literally ask him something and get no answer and I hated that. My mom knows he does this sometimes; he doesn’t have to be angry about anything, but he’ll go into what my mom calls “computer mode” if he’s doing something time-consuming and technical with computers.

My parents (especially my mom) could also sometimes seem a little overprotective when it came to hanging out with friends, but let’s be honest, I had a ton of freedom compared to many kids I know.

Other than that, there’s little that I disliked about my parents.

@cprevite wOW, YOU JUST DESCRIBED MY MOTHER! MINUS THE SMOKING AND SECRETS crap. i’m nursing and too lazy to fix that. lol

@casheroo: Its frightening how many mothers share these less-than-desirable traits. I know of a few other jellies with similar moms. We should start a club.

It’s nice we have a chance to be better parents to our children.