For the past two weeks, my mother and I have not been on the same page. We are constantly butting heads and arguing over e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g.

I’m not kidding. Everything. For example, I will go in the kitchen, get out a pot, fill it with water and put it on the stove to boil water to make mac’n’cheese. She will yell at me for making my own food. (Isn’t that something a parent should want?) She says I make a mess when I cook for myself. (I don’t.)  

Our arguments will get so bad that sometimes we will go days without talking, and I won’t come home until 10 p.m. She acts like she doesn’t care where I am, but I know she does. She’s a mom. And then, when we finally decide to talk to each other in a civil manner, we fight again.

Obviously, my mother and I are both women, and following the female stereotype, we are right even if we’re wrong. My mother and I share the same stubbornness, and it makes our disputes much more extreme.

Most of the time, I’m the type of person to say, “Ya know, let’s just figure this out. It’s not a big deal. It’ll all work out.” That is not the case with my mother.

She loves to fight. I always tell her to become a lawyer because she just loves to prove herself right, or more, prove me wrong.

I find that fighting over little things is the most pointless thing ever. But to my mother, it’s fun. Even if I literally walk away from the spark, she insists on keeping me involved. I hate arguing.

When I say we fight over pointless things, I mean things like putting water bottles in the fridge and not picking up the cat because he’ll get fur all over my clothes. Yeah. I know.

In the end, who’s the real winner? Neither of us. (Unless mom was a lawyer. Then she’d win because she’d get paid.) 

We wasted a good 10-20 minutes of our lives fighting over how to fold a towel. I’m not looking to waste my time fighting about how the pillows are arranged on the couch. Instead, I’d much rather do something productive like homework or… exercising.

And even though our extreme amount of stubbornness will cause my mother and I to always butt heads, at least I can say I tried to avoid the quarrel. Mom on the other hand..? Probably not.