My mother makes me crazy!

Great interview with socio-linguist and fellow feminist, Deborah Tannen, on her new book, You're Wearing That? Understanding Mothers and Daughters in Conversation. Tannen, a fairly famous linguist whose research focuses on the importance of understanding language in everyday conversation, has done groundbreaking work on gender relations and language and is now adding the mother-daughter convo conundrum to her repertoire. The biggest complaint I hear from daughters is: "My mother's always criticizing me." And the mother counters, "I can't open my mouth; my daughter takes everything as criticism." While my mother may claim that our problem is quite the opposite, I think this definitely applies: It's what one mother I interviewed said: "My conversations with my daughter are the best and the worst." God bless the mothers. Especially mine.