A few of my mom’s favorite things

My mother’s obsessions and how I’ve suffered through them all

By: Jack O’Connor

I have been the son to a mother for 18 years, and in this time I have learned exactly what my mother is obsessed with. With this in mind, I will do my best to give my level of understanding on my mother’s favorite things.

1. English Royalty

Never in my life have I wished to learn about the English Royal Family, yet thanks to my mother, I’ve sat through hundreds of conversations about this family, their drama, and my mother’s opinions of it all.

For starters, the Meghan and Harry drama. According to my mom, she was “really ahead of the curve” when it came to knowing the true intentions of Meghan. In her eyes, Meghan is using Harry for the spotlight and that she is the true culprit behind a majority of the Royal family’s issues. Harry and Meghan also constantly lie to the press to hurt the reputation of the family. 

Is all this true, or is my mother’s English heritage causing some bias on her part? I have no idea, but when I return home, I’m certain she’ll update me on the newest gossip.

2. Watching the same movie repeatedly for a week straight

From Hallmark movies to unfunny 2000s family comedies, my mom has spent much of her life binge-watching random films regardless of quality. Here is a very brief summary of my torturous experiences with different movies.

I can safely say that I’ve seen Ramona and Beezus at least 20 times. This was one of the earliest films I recall my mom binge-watching. For those unaware, most of the plot can be summarized as: older sister Beezus is continually annoyed by her younger sister Ramona due to how Ramona causes nearly every single problem. Within about a week, Ramona catches the kitchen on fire, ruins the family car, repeatedly embarrasses her older sister, and runs away. To this day, I despise Ramona.

My mom has played enough Hallmark Christmas films to the point where I don’t know the difference between them all. There was the one where a widowed family man and a businesswoman inherited the same property. She wants to sell it, and he wants to keep it, and surprise, they fall in love. I remember watching one where a reporter hates Christmas, goes to a small Christmas town, and falls in love with some dude there. Most recently, there was the one where a woman inherits a Christmas tree farm and plans to sell it before falling in love with a local man and his daughter. The amount of these Hallmark films I was forced to see as a child has to be considered some kind of traumatic experience.

While I can’t deny that these obsessions have annoyed me greatly, at the end of the day, these obsessions are what makes my mom my mom.