My mother is so use to me taking care of everything for her that she expects it. She will say sarcastically, "Oh it is good that you are so good at doing that." She has a habit of berating me to her friends and family all my life.
It is not as if she is grateful to have someone looking out for her or making her appts., paying her bills, ordering her supplies, taking care of a multitude of details, she expects it. There is not a shred of appreciation. She was diagnosed most of my life with depression and bipolar disorder and when I share more about her with others, they will say, it sounds like she is also narcissistic. If I ever try to share my feelings, she says "go home" and does not want to discuss it. I am 67 years old and I am sad and exhausted from her toxic behavior and attitude. It has scarred me.Thanks for your help and support.
Now that a caregiver is needed, you need to go into a caregiver mode and emotionally remove yourself from daughter mode. You are the capable adult so take the reigns and do as a caregiver should.. Not as a daughter should. If no one likes it, do as a caregiver could. Step back and let someone else do the job. Caregiving is a thankless job. Don't let ANYONE control you. That's the best thing you can do for yourself. It certainly works for me. Good luck to you!!!
A few years ago I put a stop to the berating. Mom was loosing her independence but her complaints increasingly focused on me. I talked to the ones she complained to. I asked them directly to tell her to stop. If they passively listen and support these false narratives, I explained it was hurtful to be on the receiving end of all blame as the daughter taking care of her business. For example, I would experience her complaints, then she would call around to see who would listen again, then I would get a call recounting it again. This wasted my energies.
Even when it came to doctor's appointments about her health. We were not at her doctor's appointments so she could complain about me. Partly it was cognitive decline but also in line with her personality. I had to ask the doctor to do the cognitive assessment tests rather than accept her complaints as family stress.
I had to become more involved over time with her daily needs when it was clear she was giving things away inappropriately or being influenced into questionable arrangements. I felt an obligation because she is my mother to protect and find the best care for her, but have realized there is a limit. When it comes to bad behavior, don't argue. Learn to walk away.
I often resented her absence when I was a kid, and as I recall, I was a VERY TOUGH KID to raise, which no doubt made things worse.
She herself was from a family of 7, and there was always some dear aunt or uncle to fill in the gap when she wan’t leaving the house, sometimes for months at a stretch.
My father was my closest companion, and I doubt that that helped her too much either.
When he died, as her adult daughter, many of his tasks fell to me, and over time, she and we began to grow closer. When she was 90, a badly broken hip and vascular dementia made her my dependent. Although I took care of her for a year at home, I understood by then that she wasn’t able to monitor her own conduct, and although my life was exhausting during the 7-8 years she was more-all care, I was willing to deal with it, I guess feeling grateful for the fact that she did begin to express some feeling for me.
Tough situation, no matter who’s on what side. A chronic complainer is never ever really happy.
How old is your mother? She doesn't live with you, right? How far away is she, and how many times a week do you have to do things for her? How many hours in a week does it take?
My mother in unappreciative of what I did for her, too. She gave me her car (Blue Book value $3K), and for that expected me to do all sorts of driving around for her. No gas $. She wouldn't let me do things like grocery shop for her (which would have been easy to do when I did my own grocery shopping). No. She had to come along and pick out every item, check every expiration date, etc. It took HOURS...
I set limits on my driving (to weekly Mass, medical/dental appts., one shopping trip/week), and she didn't like it at first. But she adapted.
When I mentioned payment, she got angry and practically hissed at me, "You don't pay family!" She said my time wasn't worth anything. One time she ordered me to do something that involved Internet research, and I suggested my most do-nothing brother do it. She did her crying/shaking/shaming/blaming number on me. "NO! *HIS* time is valuable!" (This brother's time was so valuable that he went 5 years one time without seeing my parents and was heading towards nearly 2 years without seeing my mother when this incident happened.)
Do you feel like this, too? Honestly, I remember something going very still inside me when this happened. It was yet another part of a wall going up inside me. More distance between us that I felt was necessary to protect myself.
BTW, I am so sorry for the loss of your son. I, too, lost my son, almost 9 years ago when he was a young adult. And you are so right -- this is a loss one doesn't ever get over!
I wish you the best.
Often we feel as though we have to meet a loved one's needs because they can't be met by somebody else. But actually, once you work through the list of requirements, everything almost always CAN be done by someone else and it becomes a practical matter of recruiting volunteers or paid services.
The thing is, your mother expects you to do all this work for her - and work it is, call it by its name - and gives you not even thanks or appreciation in return. But you know that this is her attitude. It is not going to change. Persevering in the hope that one day she will fall on your neck, embrace and bless you is... sad.
So. WHY are you doing this work?
If it's because you want to do it, regardless of your mother's attitude, then go ahead but change your expectations of her.
If it's because you long for it to lead to a mutually loving and supportive mother-daughter relationship - then change what you're doing, and work on building a relationship with her that is less damaging and exploitative.
We got carers in when we went on a long holiday and Mum threw an emotional scene saying she was so unhappy and wanted to die just because she thought my husband was never going to take her shopping again. She complains every month about paying them, even though they are probably on minimum wages.
I have actually accepted that my mum's attitude to me will not change, though it's hard to undo the damage her narcissism did to me when I was too young to understand why she acted as she did. I don't think we're sad but we are certainly a bit cowardly. I am trying my best to find a way forward that will meet some of all our needs, but it isn't easy. It's easy to say 'build a relationship that's less damaging', and it's good advice, but I'm not a therapist and don't know how to do it.
We think my mum may be depressed and possibly have early dementia, and wrote to her doctor about it, but when we went in all they did was take a blood sample.
I'm not even 57 yet and don't know how I'm going to manage another possible 10 years of this without getting mentally ill again myself.