Reply to My 77-year-old mother is lying and I don’t know what to make of it

Forum Index » Eldercare

Reply to "My 77-year-old mother is lying and I don’t know what to make of it"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous]My husband died a year and a half ago and I’m raising two late elementary kids alone. I’m also an only child. My mother is 77 and was very helpful in the beginning, but lately her behavior has gotten really weird and honestly upsetting.

She has always told little pointless lies here and there, but it has definitely escalated. I had a very important work trip recently. I do not travel much, so when I do, I really need solid childcare/pet help. This trip had been planned for two months, and I am obviously the sole income earner for my household, so it was not something casual I could just blow off. She bailed the day before. I had to scramble and get a neighbor/friend to help with my kids and cat. We made it work, but it was stressful as hell. Honestly, her bailing felt almost like sabotage, especially because she knew how important the trip was. When I confronted her, she claimed she was very sick and said she had been at the hospital. I track her location and know she was not at the hospital and did not even leave her apartment while I was gone.

Then after spring break she told me the older car I’ve been letting her use “filled with smoke” and was basically undrivable. I originally believed her, but the details started sounding off. I went and started the car myself and drove it around the neighborhood, and there were no issues. That made me even more suspicious, and now I really think she made up or exaggerated the whole thing because she wants me to replace the car. After my husband died, I let her use it because she was helping with school pickups/dropoffs. She barely even does that anymore. I did say once last year that I might eventually replace it because it is almost 20 years old, but obviously that has not exactly been my focus.

So… has anyone dealt with this with a parent? Is this just manipulation and lying? Some kind of mental health issue? Early cognitive decline? It does not really seem like dementia to me, but something feels off. I’m mostly just stunned that she would pile on more stress and apparently try to manipulate me into buying her a car when I am already doing a lot on my own.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics