I don’t want to ramble about this woman forever because I refuse to dedicate my anger to her, but the short version is that my ex is an only child. Now that I think about it, I think he was the first only child I’ve ever dated.

Some examples of her behavior I just couldn’t take anymore: * Relentless commentary on my soda-drinking habit, to the point I lied to her saying I would make an appointment with a dietician as soon as I finish my Ph.D. in three years or so. She continued to bring it up anyway, so I repeated myself and added that I will not discuss it again. * Judgmental commentary on my neighborhood because, in her opinion, it’s “unsafe.” I’ve lived here for two years. Yes, there are homeless people around. Yes, I’ve walked around after dark. No, it doesn’t scare me. No, I will not allow it to. * Turning COVID-19 from what it already was into her own hypochondria-fueled hellscape. I want to emphasize that I’ve taken every recommended precaution since February, but since cases in Houston started spiking three weeks ago, she has made sure none of them have left the house for any reason beyond having coffee outside in the back yard.

I could go on, but the truth is my ex is the purest man I’ve ever dated. I really loved him and still do, but his mom is toxic to me, especially the comments on my diet.

Just curious who else has ever dealt with this! I need solidarity!

Edit: The reason the last bullet point ended up being the one that broke my back is because I’m getting my Ph.D. in atmospheric science, specifically in data analysis of atmospheric data. One of the courses I took this spring semester was Atmospheric Data Analysis and Statistics. My bachelor’s degree is in applied math. I had three internships during undergrad. At my first, I wrote a financial pivot table for an engineering firm that not only got the CPA fired but literally replaced him. The third was a 10-week research program with NASA DEVELOP creating habitat suitability maps for oysters. I promise you all that I’m not trying to praise myself on a public forum, rather to emphasize how insulting it was trying to console his mother about how bad she thought the data looked, only to have her double down and send patronizing text messages every morning about someone they knew in the ICU. In one of those messages she literally said, “Speaking of data!!!” along with another depressing link, when I am the one with over seven years of experience analyzing data in multiple fields. I don’t think I’ve ever actually felt so insulted ever before in my life because I was really just trying to ease her extreme anxiety.