Because I think the mom just sounds like a whiny b*tch. My mother never left me in a restaurant when she was going though the change.
Q. Menopause: I am almost 19 years old and I'm still living with my parents. Both of my parents are in their late 40s and I've had a pretty good relationship with them my entire life. Starting about last year, my mom started going through menopause. I hate what it has made her become. Sometimes she'll ask if someone make her breakfast or grab her a cart at the grocery store and my brother or father and I will fight over who has to go make/do whatever she asks. She'll get fed up and scream at us, calling us names and if we had made plans to go out to eat/shop/whatever, she'll throw those plans away and lock herself in her bedroom. There were a couple of times when she and I went to restaurants (usually fast food) and because of the pressure of time, I told her I didn't want anything. She became very upset and threw insults at me and threatened to take away trips and privileges. Once she left me at a restaurant and said, "You can get your own ride home." I called a friend crying to come get me. I hate what menopause has made her, she whines and victimizes herself and can go from happy to angry at the drop of a hat. How do I deal with her for the next year until I leave for college?
A: Is it hot in here, or is it just me? I think your mother sounds perfectly normal and the rest of you are horrible meanies who don't understand how hard she's working and everything is so awful and no one understands and—excuse me while I get a box of tissues. Oh, your lucky father, a few years ago he had two kids going through puberty, and now this. Believe me, no one is more miserable than your mother and you need to urge your father to gently tell her that things don't have to be so bad and she needs to see her gynecologist for relief. She—and the rest of you—simply don't have to suffer this way. As you know, changes of life involving hormone fluctuations are not easy, but there are good interventions that should help smooth things out for your mother, and the rest of you.