not exactly value for money!

[cosmolinguist]

A couple of days ago, I determined that my webcam wasn't working on my laptop, for calls with my parents, or on my work laptop.

D kindly took it away the other day, and diagnosed it as Dead. He also reminded me we had one that I could use for work but doesn't work on Linux -- something I'd entirely forgotten about; I think I'd conflated it with the other webcam which had stopped working entirely...

He also sourced a replacement, sent me a link. Which I said was terribly sweet of him but I didn't really need, just for my parents when I could shuffle things around and just use the camera on the laptop. But it arrived the next day; he'd bought it for me anyway. "Thirty quid to keep your parents happen seems worth it," he said. Awww.

So, tonight I was so looking forward to the call with my parents starting with something other than my mom complaining that she can't see me.

Instead, the first thing she said when my camera pops on was "You're getting those deep wrinkles in your forehead too, like Grandma [my mom's own mother]."

Which a) only when I frown, or raise my eyebrows [so maybe this is the only way my parents will ever see me, lol] b) my grandma was a badass, so I hardly mind looking like her! c) to age is to live!

But most of all: she's treating me in a way she'd consider horrible bad manners if I behaved this way toward anyone.

Again. (A story I'm fond of trotting out is the time we were in a restaurant, my appetizer arrived, she looked disgusted at it and asked me warily what that was; I said "butternut squash soup" and she said "oh yuck!" A thing I'd have been told off for if I'd reacted that way to someone else's food that I both didn't have to and shouldn't have eaten!)

Can't believe D paid £30 for my appearance to be insulted like this, heh. It's a fancy webcam too; he said he got "only" 720p rather than the £50 1080p, and I was thinking this is already too big a number, I don't want my parents to see me in high definition (unfortunately for me, I said this as "that's too many p for my face!" which made D snigger because his mind is always in the gutter!). it's very zoomed-in too, which is unsettling for me too since I have to have my monitor so close to me. It's been such a long time since Mom commented on my facial hair and I'd like that to become a much longer time, an unbroken streak. She's gonna say whatever she wants as soon as she (thinks that she) is off-mic; all I ask is for her to be polite to my face!

Comments

[otter]

Oh dear. I wish there was a way to play her rudeness back to her, as if it was someone else, and see how she reacts.
My much beloved grandma was missing all of her teeth by the time she was my age, and her dentures hurt, so she mostly didn't wear them. We'd ask her to make faces at us and we'd giggle. She also let me play with her floppy arm wings - whatever that is called when we lose muscle and just get flabby. Looking more like her as I age is entirely acceptable to me, because I loved her so much.

[cosmolinguist]

It was so funny that my mom was talking about how "that's the Scandinavian coming out" in me, when she then later in the conversation asked if I'd celebrated St. Patrick's Day because I'm "a third Irish." I forgot how annoying she always was on this point, ha. I feel connected to my German and Norwegian grandparents much more than whatever biological heritage I have (that apparently comes in thirds!). The same grandma always called me "the most Norwegian of her grandchildren" when I helped her make lefse, and I was always so proud of that. Sounds like my mom has forgotten I don't actually have her mom's genes. :) Which is fine, I prefer to think of it that way myself.

[otter]

I found some waffle cookies at Aldi and now I want to make krumkake. Related because you mentioned lefse.

[forests_of_fire]

"But it's my opinion."

The battle cry if you point out the double standard. :p