The fact that she said this:

"You know if anything happens to David you and the kids can't come live with me".

SPEAKS VOLUMES TO ME!!!

There are two kinds of people in this world. The ones who give and the ones who take.

Plain and simple.

You know what kind she is. Has she changed?? Don't think so.

I have a friend who thought she was close to her mother. She did EVERYTHING she could. She bailed her mom out of gambling debts. She invited her out to dinner with her husband and another couple, one night. What did the mother do?? She blurts out. "oh you don't know my daughter, you THINK YOU KNOW MY DAUGHTER, but she's a piece of crap". Everybody put their head down, it was appalling.

Do you think this woman changed over time? Want to hear what happened? When the daughter inherited some money, she gave some to her mother. It was not ENOUGH. The mother wanted half. She literally put her hands around her daughter's neck and the grandson had to pull his own grandmother off of his mother.

I thought I had heard everything.

I don't believe leopards change their spots. I really don't.

Entitlement issues are rampant in this day and age.

No one can tell you what to do. We all have to reach our own conclusions with loved ones as we grow in this world.

I had a mother once. Very critical, very harsh. Nothing I did was right. Of course, she was 5 feet tall and weighed 120 lbs. I DID NOT!!!

I know what it feels like to have a critical mother. Many of us do.

Not telling you to throw her away. Of course not.

But you have to set up boundaries.

You have your mental health AND your physical health to think about.

Believe me, I know because I've been there.

Oh, let me let you in on a little trick I did to make my mother happy (while she was on her death bed no less).

She lived in Florida, was in a nursing home, had smoked herself to death, had 26 packs of cigarettes in her pocketbook and was on all kind of nebulizers and had emphasema. When they called me to tell me that the end was near (I knew I had to then hop on a plane from NY to Florida, there were no direct flights, and it took me 8 hours to get there no less), I tried a little experiment.

I told the nurse who called me "Go over to my mother and tell her I lost 40 lbs". She said: "WHAT???". I said "Just do it and tell me what happens".

She came back and said: '"I don't believe this, she's got a smile on her face".

She died 30 minutes later. I finally did something that she approved of.

Don't beat yourself up over this.

You just be the best parent you can to your kids.

That's all is expected of us.

If you want to be there for your mom, then do it, but be advised, IT'S NOT EASY.

Best of luck.

Melody