Strange Advice and other Strange Parent Stories

A good friend of mine has a job interview today and I wish her the best of luck. It got me thinking back to when I was job hunting and some of the strange advice I received from my mother. She was always well intentioned but usually got her advice backward. I remember after one job interview I had asked her to pick up some thank you notes so I could thank the prospective employer for taking the time out of his schedule for interviewing me. My mother actually said that it would not be appropriate to do that because according to her I took the time out of my schedule to be interviewed by him. I tried to correct her on this but she became mad at me for not "closing my mouth and taking some advice for once". Never mind the fact that I had taken a job hunting course in collage and knew what I was talking about. No problem, I called a friend of mine and she sent off the thank you note for me. Not sure what my mothers problem was. You'd think she would know that the person who has taken the job hunting course knows what they are talking about. She had a history of doing strange things like that. I recall we were at a fast food restaurant the day before I turned twenty four. Still lived at home unfortunately. I was getting my order and my mother grabs my arm and pulls me away. I told her I did not appreciate that and she actually got mad at me telling me I should "she was just trying to help and that I should use my brain and get with the program". What ever the heck that was supposed to mean. I just made sure I told everyone I knew about it and boy did she catch heck from my dad for pulling that one. She could not figure out what she did wrong. Don't get me wrong, I love my mother but she has a history of doing some really strange things and thinking they are somehow helpful and then getting mad when someone tries to correct her on it. She really hates it when you show her the evidence that she is wrong. She used to have a habit of accusing me of things I did not do and when I would prove myself right, instead of apologizing she would actually get mad at me because then she would have to actually go yell at the person who was actually responsible for the offence. One final strange parent story. I was away at school and I had received a card from some relatives saying they missed me and were sorry I could not attend a family reunion. I decided to call them and thank them for thinking of me. No keep in mind I paid my own phone bill from the money I made at my campus job. A few mornings later at seven thirty I received a call from my folks telling me they were not happy to hear that I had called some relatives to thank them for sending me the card. My first though was, this call must have been my moms idea. I informed them that I pay my own phone bill and who I call is none of their business. My mother actually tried to threaten to have the phone removed from my dorm room. I told her that as long a I'm paying the phone bill with my money I will call who ever a pleas and there is not a damn thing she can do about it. I hung up, went to class where I was almost late for a test thanks to them I don't think they realized how foolish they sounded. I did make sure I told everyone I knew even relatives the story and they thought it was pretty funny. Just some of the strange things my mom has done and said. I'm sure yours has done some strange things too although I'm guessing not as strange as mine.