“living with your parents while still in college has it’s benefits (saving money and all) but it also has its drawbacks,” writes laura in springfield, missouri. primarily…boundaries.
“my parents regularly grab my mail and put it in a compartment on a desk in our kitchen, which i don’t always check,” laura explains, and sometime shortly after christmas, laura’s mother left her daughter a thank-you note. (an oddly formal gesture, but at least she didn’t actually lick a stamp and mail it first.)
the trouble arose several weeks later, when mom discovered the note — still unopened — mixed in with laura’s other mail. her reaction? another note, of course.
on that note…happy mother’s day, mom!
related: i can has guilt trip?
EMAIL THIS POST TO A PAL!
72 responses so far ↓
#1 César
just like my mom : ).
FIRSTTSTSTTS!!!
May 9, 2008 at 11:09 pm rating: 0
#2 marc
she has kick ass penmanship; she should write notes for a living
May 9, 2008 at 11:14 pm rating: +1
#3 zombieBlanco
But why was mom using a nom de plume?
May 9, 2008 at 11:15 pm rating: 0
#4 park rose
Or is it a lolcats in Laura’s Mom’s kitchen, eating Laura’s mail? nom nom nom.
May 9, 2008 at 11:21 pm rating: +2
#5 amazon
The essence of PA’ness! Short, sweet, and dripping with guilt. Aww, almost makes me want to call my mom… almost.
May 9, 2008 at 11:38 pm rating: 0
#6 Canthz_B
Good, mom…I live here! Next time, just talk to me.
Sent my mom Omaha Steaks this year.
She didn’t like the live lobster dinner last year. Something about the cooking process.
Praise be that she still has all of her choppers!
I love you, Mom,
Happy Mothers’ Day ♥ !!!
Best to yours too, Kerry! ♥ ♥ ♥
May 9, 2008 at 11:43 pm rating: 0
#7 Nom de Guerre
Well, at least with that note we have some insight into how Laura can write “has its” twice in the same preamble … and still spell one of them incorrectly. Shame on you, “nom”!
May 9, 2008 at 11:44 pm rating: +1
#8 Canthz_B
Now, if we could just get that Mom off of Valium & Vodka Martinis, we could improve on her penmanship.
May 9, 2008 at 11:51 pm rating: +1
#9 summer
mom have a few glasses of wine when she wrote this? what do you think the slashes mean?
May 9, 2008 at 11:51 pm rating: 0
#10 summer
send???
May 9, 2008 at 11:52 pm rating: 0
#11 Sarah
Leave a letter in their mail saying “You’re welcome! Just what I wanted!”
May 10, 2008 at 12:08 am rating: +2
#12 secondsout
See, mom, I actually steamed open the envelope, read it, and then re-sealed it. Why? Umm, uhhh, I thought it was a secret?
May 10, 2008 at 12:19 am rating: 0
#13 secondsout
Laura may not check her pile of mail often, but I bet she’s a Facebook junkie. In order for mom to communicate with her daughter, she’ll need a facebook account. Generation gap…
May 10, 2008 at 12:29 am rating: 0
#14 unholyghost2003
Is Laura my half-sister? THAT note is worthy of a Jew turned Catholic mother! Brava!
May 10, 2008 at 1:28 am rating: 0
#15 Ben
Time to find out what mom’s allergic to and leave an open bottle of it around the house - I think.
May 10, 2008 at 2:06 am rating: +1
#16 RALPHY
Maybe Laura will “luck out” and Mom actually won’t send anything else. Problem solved!
May 10, 2008 at 7:29 am rating: 0
#17 Wade
I want to know is what Mom was going to write for the second sentence. That “I” started out as a “D”.
“Do you think I write thank you notes just to practice penmanship?”
May 10, 2008 at 1:01 pm rating: +2
#18 marcopuffin
Damn this spider he’s on crack
May 10, 2008 at 1:22 pm rating: 0
#19 summer
NEXT!
May 10, 2008 at 1:46 pm rating: 0
#20 o_O
am i weird for thinking mom’s signature looks suspiciously like “onion” ?
May 10, 2008 at 5:26 pm rating: 0
#21 Andrew
That is classic and extra passive with a dab of awesome agressiveness.
May 10, 2008 at 5:42 pm rating: 0
#22 summer
any note that leaves you with your mouth downturned and your finger on your John Travolta dimple, looking sideways to see if anybody is watching is a P/A note, in case ya didn’t know. it’s those notes that basically, you read and feel stupid/wierd/embarrassed/scared afterwards. Like the note from the boss that reads “see me”. you get it.
May 10, 2008 at 10:10 pm rating: 0
#23 summer
i know you are dojng th John travolta downturned mouth thing as you read this so….admit it it’s the perfect p/a note stance!
May 10, 2008 at 10:11 pm rating: 0
#24 TuesdayPillow
The slashes are a precursor of things to come. You better lock your door when you sleep.
May 11, 2008 at 5:32 am rating: 0
#25 bellabeastie
I have a couple of questions-
1. Why was Mom going through Laura’s mail? Again?
2. What was Laura being thanked for in the first place?
3. Since when is it expected to thank someone back for a thank-you note? (Especially when you didn’t get it).
4. Thank-you notes mean you did something nice/thoughtful, right?
Well, obviously from the tone of the note it just wasn’t enough.
Team Laura Needs Her Own Mailing Address
May 11, 2008 at 6:39 am rating: +1
#26 bellabeastie
P.S. Dear Starbucks Barista Note Leavah
Cavs WON & Celtics suck. haha.
P.P.S. My Mom Rocks !!
May 11, 2008 at 9:39 am rating: 0
#27 Jinx
You can see the anger in mom’s (if that’s her real name!) writing.
May 11, 2008 at 10:45 am rating: 0
#28 claw71
Mom’s truly PA. Using my keen powers of knowing exactly what everybody is thinking, I have determined that the real issue is Laura’s increasingly snug mail drawer. Since grungy college chick doesn’t check her mail for weeks on end, Mommy Dearest is having to stack the overflow on the desk. Mom should just draw the line and tell Laura she can either check her mail and deal with the correspondence in a timely fashion or move the fuck out.
Listen, dingbat, it’s not your house so do your parents a solid and perform routine mailbox maintenance. Also, do your own laundry and stop sleeping on the couch until noon on Saturday.
May 12, 2008 at 6:31 am rating: 0
#29 kendra
yeah this sounds familiar… i had the “bright” idea of staying with my dad while going to graduate school when i moved from michigan to indiana… had lived on my own since i graduated college and thought it wouldn’t be that bad, and of course, I’d be able to save money. Well, one day I brought home a bottle of wine. I’m not one to bring alcohol home because I tend to just drink socially, but I had found a wine I had really liked and wanted to enjoy it one evening while I was home alone. Well, come to find out, the next day my dad takes the wine out of the fridge, puts it outside by the door, and inside the fridge is a note: “Please don’t bring alcohol into the house.” While I totally respect his wishes and had no issue with the content of his note, I wondered, ‘Why did he need to leave me a note? I was in the next room. Just talk to me about it.’ So I told him I’d rather just have a talk about it than a note cause it seems a little ridiculous.
The next day? No note this time, but he pulled the corkscrew out of the drawer and placed it on the counter…
May 12, 2008 at 10:09 am rating: 0