I’m a biological only child but was raised alongside my older cousin (we all grew up in my grandmother’s house; she adopted my cousin as his parents weren’t fit to take care of him). My mother made this choice more or less but will NOT stop holding the only child fact over my head. I’m 26 and she still attempts to act just as controlling, manipulative, and smothering as she did when I was younger. If I am around her, she is quick to correct any mistake I make, she nitpicks and scrutinizes any false move I make (i.e. at my graduation party I was given a gift of homemade candy; immediately after I opened them she accused me of “not sharing” and “hoarding” them when I didn’t offer some to everyone else fast enough for her liking. She only does this when we’re in the company of other people). In some way, she has a problem with me being an adult and as much as she gets mad when I depend on her–which I don’t, I moved eight hours away from her for a reason–it seems like she tries to foster some weird codependency between us. Her martyr b******* used to know no bounds until I broke free away from her. Constantly accusing me of being “such an only child” whenever I asserted some independence used to work like a charm on me…..not anymore. I just wish she would see how she’s pushing me away from her. I wish she would quit acting like a narcissistic b**** before turning around and accusing me of the same.