Setting: Christmas time, I was maybe 10 or 11

We're going to visit my mother's friend's daughter and husband. They had recently got married.

My mother neglected to buy a Christmas gift for the husband. So she says to me, "Give me the gift you got for dad." I decline. She insists. I end up having to give the gift.

This is a situation that has happened repeatedly in my life. An overbearing mother who shows absolutely no respect for the wishes, privacy, or personal autonomy of their child. It breeds psychopaths. "So why don't you call grandma anymore?" That's why.

So I give the gift. Or, more accurately, she takes the gift. This was perhaps the last gift that I ever bought for my father, by the way.

It was a cheap cologne set.

So we go see this daughter and husband of my mother's friend. She gives a tour of the house including the bedroom. "Grandma calls these our nigger sheets." My mother tries to play this down.

Can you believe that such a conversation would take place between grandmother and granddaughter? And that granddaughter would then see it appropriate to repeat this story in front of a 10 or 11 year old boy? Or indeed, to ANYBODY?

My mother was a horrible person but she at least kept any racist views she might have held to herself. Same with my father, who was definitely a racist guy. Nobody in my family reveled in racism. There were never any racial comments made.

But this girl is talking about her nigger sheets to her mother's friend and her 10 year old son. It's bizarre. My sisters were also there.

So it's time to exchange gifts. My mother is laughing hysterically as she gives the husband the gift. By the way, my father wasn't here. He didn't do many of these family things.

She's saying that this was originally a gift that I was to give to my father. She finds this all hilarious. Then the guy opens the gift. He feigns delight. And my mother is almost doubled over in laughter. "IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE BARON'S GIFT TO HIS DAD!!!"

What was the point of any of this? She was too stupid to get this guy a gift, so steals my gift for my father, and then humiliates me in front of a total stranger. I never met that guy before or after this one Christmas.

She would rather impress a total stranger than respect her son. And the way she's impressing this total stranger is by degrading her own son.

It's bizarre.

Years later, I'm probably 22, my sister is going to Finland. So my mother comes to me, "Give me those 60 marks you have". I had 60 Finnish marks from my last trip to Finland that I was saving. Not for their value as a currency but as a souvenier.

I decline.

She insists. "Give me the 60 marks. The money won't be worth anything soon. They're going to be using the Euro."

I decline.

She insists and insists and insists and I continue to decline every single time.

Finally, she gives up. That was the first time I've seen her give up. There was no way that I was giving my bitch sister any money.

When somebody says that they don't want to do something, you just accept it. We're not talking about toddlers here. We're talking about people who are able to make rational decisions. But she just had absolutely no respect for me and would force me to do whatever stupid shit she wanted done.

"Grandma's in failing health. You might want to call her."

Just die already, grandma.