My mum came up to visit last night, and I found out in the early hours of this morning, that she and I really need to start talking abnormally. We keep missing out on good times together because we act as though we're on the same wavelength, when it is becoming apparent that we aren't.
For years, I have found it SO irritating when my mum asks me to tell a joke, particularly in front of other people. The reason being, that she's always hated the majority of my jokes, rarely found them funny, and usually told me they were rubbish. Occasionally she will say a joke is brilliant. Mostly though, she'll say the joke is crap, but then the next day ask me to tell it to her again. What madness! It instantly enrages me, and often, it makes me so angry that I do enter into a bit of a blind rant.
So, after a lovely evening, that crept into the early hours, she did it again! 'Go on Rosie, tell that joke again'. ARGH! 'Why????? You didn't like it - why would you want me to tell it to someone else, so that they can tell me it's awful too?' It's always seemed to me to be a form of humiliation. If a joke doesn't work, stop telling it, right? But she always does this, and we always end up fighting.
Well, following a very normal argument, a very strange conversation emerged. We actually talked it through. I managed to calmly express why it angered me so much. If only she had told me years ago, that when she says a joke is terrible, or awful, that she actually likes it. But if I say that someone has died, and she says that it's terrible, then she means that it is terrible. If I tell a second joke, and she says 'that one's even worse', she means that it is even better. If she says that she is worse than me at maths then she means that she is worse.
We spent a good two hours, running through hundreds of different situations. I have misunderstood so many of her responses; it verges on the ridiculous. And I have kicked off at her so many times, when there was no need. Luckily, we had drank enough to be able to see the funny side. It was weird waking up today though, and speaking to her again. It feels like nothing she says is quite as it seems anymore, and much as it's good to know that she does actually have a sense of humour, it has changed our future interactions in quite a big way, I think. The world has gone a little topsy turvy temporarily.
Got to laugh
My mum came up to visit last night, and I found out in the early hours of this morning, that she and I really need to start talking abnormally. We keep missing out on good times together because we act as though we're on the same wavelength, when it is becoming apparent that we aren't.
For years, I have found it SO irritating when my mum asks me to tell a joke, particularly in front of other people. The reason being, that she's always hated the majority of my jokes, rarely found them funny, and usually told me they were rubbish. Occasionally she will say a joke is brilliant. Mostly though, she'll say the joke is crap, but then the next day ask me to tell it to her again. What madness! It instantly enrages me, and often, it makes me so angry that I do enter into a bit of a blind rant.
So, after a lovely evening, that crept into the early hours, she did it again! 'Go on Rosie, tell that joke again'. ARGH! 'Why????? You didn't like it - why would you want me to tell it to someone else, so that they can tell me it's awful too?' It's always seemed to me to be a form of humiliation. If a joke doesn't work, stop telling it, right? But she always does this, and we always end up fighting.
Well, following a very normal argument, a very strange conversation emerged. We actually talked it through. I managed to calmly express why it angered me so much. If only she had told me years ago, that when she says a joke is terrible, or awful, that she actually likes it. But if I say that someone has died, and she says that it's terrible, then she means that it is terrible. If I tell a second joke, and she says 'that one's even worse', she means that it is even better. If she says that she is worse than me at maths then she means that she is worse.
We spent a good two hours, running through hundreds of different situations. I have misunderstood so many of her responses; it verges on the ridiculous. And I have kicked off at her so many times, when there was no need. Luckily, we had drank enough to be able to see the funny side. It was weird waking up today though, and speaking to her again. It feels like nothing she says is quite as it seems anymore, and much as it's good to know that she does actually have a sense of humour, it has changed our future interactions in quite a big way, I think. The world has gone a little topsy turvy temporarily.