Time For Mother To Face The Music

(I like to listen to my iPod frequently. I listen to a wide variety of music including soft piano music, jazz, and heavy metal. My mother doesn’t like me listening to heavy metal, but she hasn’t forbidden me from buying CDs or from listening to the music. I’m folding the laundry while listening to some jazz. My mother is on the other side of the room.)

Mother: “I wish you wouldn’t listen to that metal stuff; it’s so loud I can hear it over here!”

(I shrug in confusion, but don’t say anything. A few days later I’m reading a book in the living room while listening to soft piano music. My mother walks past.)

Mother: “That metal stuff is really bad for your ears; if I can hear it from the other room then it’s too loud and you’ll be deaf by the time you’re 40.”

(I pull out my headphones so that the soft piano music comes out of the small speaker.)

Me: “Really?”

Mother: “You just switched that over!”

(A few days after that while listening to jazz again, my father asks to borrow my iPod to take a picture. I unplug the iPod leaving the headphones in my ears knowing it won’t take long. My mother walks past while Dad’s still taking the photo.)

Mother: “Now [My Name], I’m really concerned about the disregard over your own health. I can hear your head banging music from the other room; it is so loud it is making me lose my concentration.”

Dad: “Um… [Mother’s Name]…”

(Both my mother and I turn to look at my dad, and he’s waving my iPod in front of us.)

Dad: “What music was she listening to?”

Mother: “Um…”