Dealing With An Unreasonable Mother

Living at home through college can be trying enough. Throw in a mother with severe psychological and emotional problems, and it can be harrowing. Be red pill in responses, and the results can be hilarious.

Mom: "Would you hook up my new TV to the cable?"

Son: "Sure. Want me to do it now?"

Mom: "No, not now. The TV is still in my car and I need to go."

Son: "Are you sure? It will only take me a minute. Plus, I leave in an hour to go camping with some buddies. I won't be back until tomorrow afternoon."

Mom: "Can't you do it this evening when I get back?"

At this point, he could have already taken the TV out of her car and been hooking it up, but that's what she was saying "no" to.

Son: "Like I said, I'll be camping. The campsite is over an hour away."

Mom: "When do you leave?"

Son: "In about an hour."

Mom: "If I get it back to you before you go, will you hook it up?"

Son: "Sure."

The mom leaves. An hour comes and goes. No sign of the mom coming back. Son leaves for his camping trip.

When he gets back the next day, his TV is gone from his room. He scans the house, but it's not there. What is there is a note from his mom:
"Since you went back on your word, I'll go back on mine. I'm taking back the TV that MY Momma got for you."

Mom is not home, she is at work. Son thinks for a moment, and then hatches a plan!

When Son arrives home from college the next day, Mom is sitting on the chair in his room, brow furrowed. The look on her face is anger. The look on Son's face is shit-eating grin. She goes into a fit of rage.

Mom: "You went back on YOUR word, and then steal my computer when I punish you?!"

Son: "And more stuff comes up missing until I get my TV back... or until I have enough stuff to sell for money for a new TV."
agree & amplify

Mom: "That's not right!!! You bring my computer back this minute!"

Son: Looks at space where the TV had been. Passes his hand through that space, then nods "no." The shit-eating grin remains... as does his calm demeanor.
maintain frame

Mom: [Fit of expletives, demanding her laptop computer back. Right now!]

Son: "There's the problem, you won't take your meds. Had you been taking them like the doctor said, you'd have realized it would have taken only a minute for me to get the TV out of your car. But no. You'd rather manufacture a problem where none existed just because you wanted everything done your way, the hell with anyone else. That's why you have no friends... well, keep it up and you won't have any belongings, either. I'll sell them all to fund my TV." Son delivers this message calmly - just barely above a whisper. And he then leaves the room in a completely nonchalant manner.
Ridicule and reframe



15 minutes later, the mom tells where the missing TV is.
The son reveals the location of the missing laptop - in the unfolded clean linens: "the last place you'd ever look," he tells her (neg).
Later that evening he sets her new TV up.
Taped to the remote is her bottle of meds.