Daughter hits up parents to pay for fancy wedding
I'm 67 and he's 40.
I've always tried to be there for him. I have loved being his mom.
He loves to tease me, so I didn't say anything about it for a while, because I knew he would run with it, but I figured he wasn't going to stop so I asked him to please stop calling me by my first name
I told him it hurt me and that I felt it was disrespectful.
Well, he still does it and mostly smiles when he does it.
I don't know what to do anymore. After I'm around him, I usually end up having a good cry.
Is this the new thing? My friends tell me their children don't call them by their first name. They say they wouldn't like it either.
What should I do?
-- Call Me Mom
Dear Mom: Your son sounds like a mean tease. Taunting your mother and then persisting even after she has asked you to stop is quite an unattractive quality in a 40-year-old man.
You will have to carefully examine your feelings to decide how tolerable this is, longer term, but I suggest that the next time you feel like crying about this teasing, you should not save your tears for your private time. Don't protect your son from your emotions. Go ahead and cry, or -- the next time this happens, if you're feeling more anger than sadness, then get your coat and leave his presence.
Dear Amy: I loved your advice to "Invisible Wife" to make a video to get her husband's attention when he was paying attention to his technology instead of her.
It would have been easy for her to sit around and sulk. I hope she takes your creative advice.
-- Impressed
Dear Impressed: Thank you! Sometimes, you have to make a "Hail Mary" pass in order to mix things up and make your point.
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(You can contact Amy Dickinson via email: askamy@amydickinson.com. Readers may send postal mail to Ask Amy, P.O. Box 194, Freeville, NY 13068. You can also follow her on Twitter @askingamy or "like" her on Facebook.)
