The Mother Of All Anxieties, Part 4

My mom has anxiety issues when it comes to things going according to plan, and she loses perspective on the feelings of others and becomes incredibly inflexible. I have decided to take up canning. Being in California, there’s a ton of varieties of local produce and I want to be able to enjoy them all year long. I mention it to my mom during a phone call and we have this exchange.

Mom: “You want to do what?”

Me: “Canning. It’s when you make preserves or sauces, put them in sterile mason jars, and seal them. It doesn’t seem that complicated and it doesn’t cost much…”

Mom: “No.”

Me: “No?”

My mom looks at me as if I just said I was going to hunt for fairies.

Mom: “No, you’re not going to do that.”

Me: “Why not? It’s a great way to use fruits and veggies from the farmers’ market.”

Mom: “No… [My Name], no…”

Me: “Seriously?”

Sounding like she’s tired of my foolish ideas, my mom just says:

Mom:  “Goodbye, [My Name]” *Hangs up*

However, I was 27 by then, and although my parents were still helping me finish my final degree program, I still lived on my own and had two part-time jobs, so I went ahead with my plan. By the time she found out about it, I had several batches of tomato sauces jarred, as well as a few different jams. She saw what I had created and was immediately impressed.

For the next three years, every time she came over, she’d “go shopping,” which meant she’d look over my collection of jars to see what new things I’d made and then pick out what she wanted to take with her. She even had me come to her house to jar some of her home-grown produce. When I was getting ready to move away, she decided to have me teach her how to can and now she makes her own jams and jellies.

Related:
The Mother Of All Anxieties
The Mother Of All Anxieties, Part 2
The Mother Of All Anxieties, Part 3