Is OTHER wrong in the post ? POST : I have a stressful relationship with my mother, it’s somewhat of a situation where I grew up being treated like her therapist through listening to her marriage issues, thinking it was cool I was “best friends with my mom.” She tends to guilt trip and results majorly to emotional manipulation tactics to make us all feel like shit instead of telling us what’s wrong.

That being said, she tells me way too much about other people.

If she hears something personal from a “friend” at work (I can’t tell if she hates everyone she’s “friends” with or not) she will tell me. It’s not my business, and it makes me incredibly angry. I’m talking things like her friend catching her very young daughter watching porn, she will tell me every detail. At this particular instance I asked her if her friend wants her going around telling people about this incident, and she didn’t have an answer beyond “well, I have to talk to SOMEONE.”

She blew up recently when she told me about a very close family member having an abortion that no one knew about. It doesn’t change my opinion of this family member, not at all, but it infuriates me that she was trusted with this secret and spouted it off to me. There was no reason for her to tell me or anyone else. I told her as such. I don’t want to hear things about other people that aren’t my business. She went on this whole rant about how she’s all alone, she has no one to talk to, and everyone hates her. 

Clearly, her rant was a guilt trip, I’ve grown up with her emotional manipulation and it doesn’t affect me to an extent, but it has me wondering if I’m being an asshole for not letting her “rant” or whatever.

But is it wrong that I don’t want to hear stuff that wasn’t meant for my ears? I understand sometimes needing to talk to someone, but when she’s actually venting it’s usually about my dad, which isn’t something you go to your kid about, and it fucked me up when I was younger.