Your children hate you

I called my Mom this morning. A mistake, of course, but sometimes unavoidable. The children are at her house, so I asked how they are doing.

"Oh, well you know, they always tell me they want to live with me for the first few days they are here."

Wow. Was there any reason to tell me that, other than her need to subtly undermine my feelings of parenting proficiency? The subtext, of course, was that she felt compelled to tell me so I would be aware that the children are unhappy with me, so maybe I can modify my parenting to be more the way she thinks parenting should be done.

The reality is that children always love the people they are with, and in fact, they generally complain when I tell them they're going to spend time with their Grandparents, but I would never tell my Mom that.

Maybe I should.