Is this a my mom thing or a narc thing?

Does anyone else have a narcissist in their life (bc I suppose this could apply to anyone, not just moms) that will put someone down thinking you will laugh with them about it, in the event that what they were originally talking about didn’t land?

Context/Example:

This afternoon my mom was speaking to me about my brother’s dogs periodically peeing through the pee pads they have in their penned area. And I’m not sure if I was just not paying enough attention or if she doesn’t realize how nonsensical it sounded, but she was semi-complaining to me about how she ‘doesn’t understand how they always get pee under the pads, they must have pinprick holes in them’ (paraphrasing), and so now I’m confused because she can’t really seriously believe that? I hope? That would completely defeat the purpose (though, yes, in fairness, there could have been a few defective pads that had stress holes in the creases from the packaging process, but I sincerely doubt that was anything occurring to her thought process) of the pads, so I just kind of was like, I don’t understand what you mean. And so she reiterated what she had said, exaggeratedly (‘if you hold them up to the light do you think you can see the pin hole in them?’), and I just kind of nodded along to what she was saying. Because I was still baffled that she would think her thought was legitimately accurate.

But so fast forward a few minutes after that (bc heaven forbid silence), and she starts remarking about how the cleaning person next door has been there for two hours so the house must be a horrible mess (then looks to me for agreement and praise at being a jerk about the state of someone else’s house, someone that has a child turning a year old in like a week or two and is probably deep cleaning areas of the house in preparation for a large party), and I was like, oh, across the street? (Bc I know across the street is elderly and uses a monthly cleaning service), but no, she was speaking about same side of the street next door. For reference, I live in a very quiet suburban neighborhood, nothing fancy, and not a development. And then continues on about how cleaning services usually only do hour-long services, so two hours is just excessive. As if she would know. Because the week she spent as a cleaning person back in the 80s that she quit from once she realized the family who’s place she was cleaning wouldn’t reprimand their son for stealing something out of her purse. Why she thought it was appropriate to bring her purse into a client’s home, I’ll never know. But there are all kinds of time slots and services you can hire a cleaner for, and tbh, an hours worth of time is basically maintenance cleaning if your house is already fairly clean or limited to just one or two rooms. But of course, I didn’t snicker or also shit on the neighbors about it, so, that got a bee in her bonnet too. I was finally able to walk away after that, since I wasn’t entertaining her. But wow. Her whole personality is just being a bully and pushing people to share in her misery.

Posted Sep 3, 2025, 5:03 PM UTC

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