The Mother Of All Anxieties

(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. My dad never helps her clean the house — particularly when they are having company — because according to her, he can never do it the “right” way. She also becomes very controlling and irrationally afraid that any action we take that’s outside of her direction will somehow create lots more work for her. It is the day before Thanksgiving and I am sixteen years old. I get home from school and dutifully make sure my room is clean. When everything is sorted, I decide I need to empty my very full clothes hamper. My mom is in the living room and sees me dragging my clothes hamper past her.)

Mom: *alarmed* “What are you doing?”

Me: “I’m getting my laundry done tonight.”

Mom: “No! You’re not doing laundry now. I spent all day folding clothes and towels and I’m not going to have you mess up the laundry room the day before Thanksgiving!”

Me: “How the heck is me washing and drying my clothes and then bringing them back to my room going to ‘mess up’ the laundry room?”

Mom: *angrily* “I have too much to worry about tomorrow to deal with this; you’ll have to wait to do laundry until after Thanksgiving.”

Me: “Me washing my clothes isn’t going to affect you in any way.”

Mom: “You’re not messing up the laundry room THE DAY BEFORE THANKSGIVING! Stop ARGUING WITH ME!”

(I realized I was not going to win this one, so I dragged my hamper back into my bathroom and tried to stuff the clothes down so I could at least get it to close. The next day, Mom was frustrated with the limited selection of clean shirts I had.)