Well, that's the thing...my mom was super controlling with me. She let my brother do his own thing most of the time, but she was very strict with me and I never rebelled. I was the "prude" in high school because I didn't drink, I didn't date, I didn't go out past dark, never snuck out of my house...I was just the typical good girl. And I kept thinking "It's only for a few years" because as soon as I got to college, I'd be living on my own and I wouldn't HAVE to follow the ridiculous rules about being home by the time it got dark. So when she started saying she wanted to move to the college town with me so I could live with her, I told her she could move, but I wasn't going to live with her. She insisted that then there was no reason for her to move. Well....fine....then don't. But she couldn't understand why I didn't want to save money and I told her I wanted the experience of living in the dorm, that they did activities and things that you couldn't be part of if you didn't live there, and that you always knew what was going on on campus because it was posted in the dorms. I could hardly tell her that the reason I didn't want to live with her was because I wanted to actually go out on a date with a boy at some time in my life, and that I'd LIKE to see what it looks like after dark without my 6'4" brother hovering over me, and that I didn't want to get the 3rd degree if I had some eyeliner on. I wanted to actually have a LIFE. I never went to parties, I never drank in college, I didn't experiment the way a lot of kids do, but I just wanted to be able to be a normal person and not be mortified when someone asked if I wanted to go here or there because it was "past my curfew". I didn't want to HAVE a curfew. I wanted it to be MY decision when I wanted to come home. But I couldn't explain that to my mother without her thinking I was the most promiscuous scarlet woman to ever live. So I just had to say flat out, no, I won't live with you even if you do move there and leave it at that. I think she was angry about that until the day she died...that was the worst possible thing I could do to her. I think she was honestly just scared that something would happen to me if she didn't have these crazy rules (nothing happens in daylight, right?) and she wasn't ready to be alone, so she just clung to me and wouldn't let me grow up. I had to just put my foot down and say "I'm legally an adult now. Please let me be one."
