Am I overreacting or does my mother secretly hate me

👨‍👩‍👧‍👦family/in-laws

My whole life I hear people describe my mother as so kind and caring and either I'm delusional or she's like that with everyone but me. I feel like the punching bag.

My mother is in her early 50's and is a perfectly capable woman but apparently needs me to do everything for her and then criticises how I'm doing something or how long it takes me to do something. e.g I bought the new Dyson airstrait and now she needs me to blow-dry her hair for her even though she has let her hair air dry for as long as I can remember, there have been times where I've offered to let her use it herself but she refuses "because it's just easier" if I do it for her, doesn't matter if I'm sick, in pain etc. Asks me to straighten her hair for her because I do it "properly" but "hurry up" because I'm "taking to long". Do her makeup for her because I'm good at doing it but "just do it any old way" but "I want to look nice". Asks me to dye her hair for her section by section to get her grey roots but "come on, wrap it up now" My older sister (34f) who also lives at home is never asked to do any of this. It's also important to add that this is not used as a way to bond or anything like that as it is always full of negativity.

She asks me to order stuff online for her because again, "it's just easier" when she's the one who does all of that for her older siblings etc. - just to reiterate, she is perfectly capable of doing this.

Probably 90% of the times she rings me it's to do her a favour.

I don't enjoy drinking. In the past she would frequently try to guilt me into drinking for events, to which I would say no. Recently me and my boyfriend of 3 years (25m) booked a holiday with his family for his mothers birthday and I was speaking to my mother about how I wasn't looking forward to it as I'm quite shy, she asked why I agreed to go in the first place and I explained its a milestone birthday for his mother and all she wanted was to go on holiday with her loved ones. My mother then made a dig that I would have had no problem saying no if she asked me to go. I asked her why she said this and she said that I never go to anything that she invites me to. I asked for an example and she paused and thought and as she was about to speak I interrupted and added that the examples should not include times she invited me to drink since she knows I don't like drinking and she was unable to give any other examples. I replied that she never asks me to do anything that doesn't involve drinking and she was silent.

These are only a few small examples from recent weeks because I would have to write a novel to include everything from the last 25 years.

Please tell me am I overreacting, I am just finding it so draining.

Posted Aug 11, 2025, 1:20 PM UTC

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