Mother-daughter relationships often seem challenging. Is this always the case? What has your relationship with your mother or your daughter been like?
Created: 11/19/16
Replies: 11
Join Date: 10/15/10
Posts: 3442
Mother-daughter relationships often seem challenging. Is this always the case? What has your relationship with your mother or your daughter been like?
Join Date: 01/01/16
Posts: 434
I had a good relationship with my mother. I was the youngest of three girls. My sisters were four years and ten years older then me so I was always the baby. When my mother died in July 1999 I felt like I had lost my best friend. The only person that had loved me unconditionally. I must admit that I was not always as nice to her as I should have been. She was an extremely nice mother that loved me and my two sons.
Join Date: 06/19/12
Posts: 407
I think all mother-daughter relationships have their fraught moments, though some are worse than others. I have two daughters; as adults we have an excellent relationship but in their teens they were not always so appreciative of me. I was the same way with my own mother. All of my relationships have been quite stable, though, unlike that between Kai and Paula. I think that helps keep the rough patches from becoming extreme.
Join Date: 06/23/13
Posts: 142
My daughter and I are very close. We had the normal teenage trials, but have always had a special bond. My mother and I were very different women and while we were never close, we were never estranged like Paula and Kai. As I was adopted it may have played some role in our differences.
Join Date: 03/10/15
Posts: 47
I do not believe it is always the case ...in my own family of three sisters my mom had a different relationship with each of us... reflecting back now that she is gone, I see how my siblings and I had different personalities that fit or clashed with hers... since my mom's recent death, as the mother of my own grown daughter , I have been thinking lately about the secrets we hold from our children... Paula's mother told stories to express her inner feelings and history but suppose she had been more honest with her daughter about her past...is total honesty necessary in families? Do we do our children a favor by protecting them from what we deem too much for them to handle?
Join Date: 05/31/15
Posts: 30
My relationship with my mother has been difficult over the years but has finally gotten better in the past few years. Paula's childhood was unstable and that affected the relationship. My parents were unhappily married and I think that affected my relationship with my mom. Paula never knew who her father was so she built an entire world around her mom.
Join Date: 05/29/15
Posts: 460
My mother and I had a rocky relationship but I did take care of her after my father died. It was still a rocky road. My own daughter and I had a similar relationship until I was diagnosed with cancer and she became my care giver and I survived. That was 7 years ago and we are closer than ever.
Join Date: 03/16/15
Posts: 10
I think that mother-daughter relationships are never easy and my mother and I had a good one as I grew up. I always respected her choice to have a professional career out of the home which in her time period was very difficult. It was part of a family tradition that all the women get a college degree and are able to support themselves. I am very proud that my daughters have carried that tradition on.
Join Date: 04/14/11
Posts: 101
I consider myself very lucky, I always felt loved and wanted by both my mother and my father. I really did have a June Cleaver kind of Mom. I always was able to talk to her about anything at anytime. I feel that was something she worked hard at since she didn't have an open relationship with my Grandmother who was part of the "let's not talk of that today" and tomorrow never came era. All sexual directed conversations were banned. I am very lucky to have two fine young woman to call my daughters. We have fun together, we laugh, we cry but most of all we respect each other and our accomplishments.
Join Date: 08/29/13
Posts: 102
I loved my mom but I wasn't as nice to her as a teen and young woman as I should have been. I judged her failings more harshly then I should have. She was a alcoholic and had a hard life. She made a lot of mistakes but she also did a lot of good things. She's gone now. She died of cancer. I think she knew I loved her but I wish I would have spent more time with her. I have three daughters. They are 19, 17 and 13. I have been told they will get along better with me when they are older. I think mother daughter relationships are naturally challenging.
Join Date: 06/25/13
Posts: 347
I was born 15 years after my sister, so I always felt like an only child. My father died when I was 12. After that it was just Mother and I. We had a special relationship because of that. There was not much money, so my Mother had to go to work after being a stay-at-home Mother for 30 years. She did all she could to keep our normal life. She is where I got my love of reading. I was young when I out grew children or teen book. She had to go to library and OK it with that I could check out adult books. She also steered me to good authors
Join Date: 03/13/12
Posts: 548
I think that every mother and daughter have a period - however brief- that is difficult or suddenly not as smooth as before. I could copy and paste part of what karenrn wrote two spaces above. I wasn't always nice as a teen. I urge every daughter out there to talk about this even if you think wonderful trips together and times together over years and decades made up for a difficult period. You do not want your mother to pass on and have anything left unsaid. But most of all, if your mother is aging, be kind now; be patient now. The empty space in your life when your mother is gone can be overwhelming.
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