* One more thing, Libby: it hurts me to ask this, it hurts me to think this is at all a possibility:

Are you using your children so to MAKE your mother care about you? Are you hurting them so to evoke her empathy?

By hurting them, I mean: do you complain to them or in their presence about how your mother prefers your sister and her children over you and your children?

It hurts me to think of this as a possibility. It really does.

It hurts me to think how far you have gone in trying to make your mother care about you, how big of a price you have been so far willing to pay, your own “terrible time with stress and anxiety” for so long, as well as the price being paid by your husband and by your innocent children.

It makes me wonder how far you are still willing to go in your quest for your mother’s love?

When will you give up getting water out of a rock?

anita