Mom left, but I "have to...."

Mom left earlier this week. Now it is back to my regular routine.

After the bra incident with mom, things here were pretty uneventful for the duration of her stay. That is if I don't count that her mothering aggressiveness was increasing day by day along with her verbal "have to" lists. I congratulate my husband for keeping his bloodied tongue between his teeth, give or take a couple of slips. However, I didn't do so well. Don't worry I behaved on the most part, just reminded myself, she will soon be busy again with my brother and sister's lives (HA-HA-HA!).

Since, mom has left I have talked to her on the phone almost daily. Each time receiving a list of "have to..." Sometimes, I hear them, sometimes I don't, most of the time, I just get frustrated for even listening to her. I guess this is what it is like for my teenager.

Anyway, there was one "have to" she mentioned a couple of weeks before she left. Prune the roses. Now, I thought those roses were my neighbor's, since they are on the property border along with the rest of her beautiful garden. She did talk to me last year about the roses, our first summer in this house, but I can't remember what she said. I think I still had postpartum mush brain (hmmm, can I still use that excuse).

One day, mother set out to prune the bushes. Before she did, I asked her to talk to the neighbor and make sure those were our bushes. So, she did and started in on the task of pruning the bushes. Now, I was feeling guilty for not pruning the bushes last year. If I understood them to be our rose bushes, I would have taken better care not to have unruly bushes beside the neighbors beautiful flowers.

Before leaving, my mother reminded me to finish pruning the rose bush, along with a few other things "you almost need a bigger clipper to take out all those dead branches..." So, yesterday, I set out to finish the job. Said,"hello" to the neighbor and her visiting friends before going about my business of chopping up the rose bush. If I could, I would just pull it up, but there was still some life inside the thick, dead thorny branches. After, I had a few thorns in bedded in my skin and a pile of dead branches up to my knees, the neighbor call out,

Are you going to take my whole rose bush out?
Your bush?! But my mother told me.... Ah my mother!
Your mother!
We will talk later

The neighbor laughed and went back to talking to her friends. I quickly cleaned up my mess and went into the house to call my mother.

Mom, you told me the neighbor said those were my rose bushes
She did... She said, those bushes are yours to prune as you like.
Mom, I don't think that means they are mine, I think she was referring to Little Bean's safety... now we know.

Eventually, I am going "to have" to face the neighbor. Yet, even more so, I am going to "have to" face my mother on her "have to" lists.
Or do I have to?