Re: Hate Thread
This is probably a last-resort solution, but my mother is the same way. What I did was basically ignore her completely. Every time something serious came up that needed to be talked about, I never once talked to her about it, opting instead to go to my far more rational dad. And if she ever tried to bring up something to me, I pretty much walked away while she talked, or I tuned her out if I couldn't leave. She kind of got the message because she now realizes that she's being petty, but she doesn't seem to want to change anyway.
Now you said that they'll even stop you when you've done nothing to provoke them. If it were me in the situation, I would have completely blown them off, as rude as that may sound. Sometimes people, even your own family, need to realize when you're sick of their shit and won't deal with it anymore.
Of course, I'm not saying just completely ignore your parents. Just show that when it comes to YOUR needs, they damn well better listen, or you'll stop listening to them. And yeah, I don't know how your family is, so their reaction may be completely different.
It may not be really good advice, but that's what I've done and I don't have to handle their tomfoolery much these days.Oh, and don't make the excuse that "You can't just walk away." You can ALWAYS walk away. You just choose not to.
Seriously, I haven't been able to have one serious conversation about a problem with them in the past 10 years without them derailing it into some inane thing about how they can't aford to go on a cruise or my mom crying about me wanting to make her depressed.