How to stay kind with someone like my[27f] mother[46], who can't stop openly voicing her opinion about everything?

I live a good distance away from my family. I see my mother 2-3 days at a time 4-5 times per year (with the exception of a week long trip once or twice a year). She just completed a visit last week. I noticed that I was being pretty rude to her sometimes, though, and I'd like to not be that way next time she visits.

My issue, she voices her opinion about *everything* if she doesn't like it. I've known her for 27 years! Of course I know what she doesn't like! How could I miss what she doesn't like when she talks about it ALL OF THE TIME.

Here are examples: She is a cold person. I mean physically. She is freezing if the temperature is below 85*f. When we went to Colorado over the summer, we signed up for an early morning water rafting adventure. It just happened to be 40* that morning. Once she realized it was going to be cold and the water is freezing temperatures, I couldn't stand it much more. I told her she is not allowed to say the words "cold" and "freezing". I even made it a game with my 7&5 year old kids that day. I basically treated her like my own child. "Now everyone listen! It is cold this morning, and we're going to be getting wet with ice cold water too. We're going to play a game. The person who says anything describing how cold they are loses." My mom looked at me with a crazy face, but she is competitive and she's not stupid, she knew what I was doing. It worked!

Fast forward, back to last week, she visited. Things she hates that she decided to bring up (that we've talked about 1000 times before), during conversations I was having with *other* people that were visiting: sweet potatoes, instant oats, coffee. Those are just things I was talking about with my grandma and brother who were also visiting. She likes to add that she hates those things, even if we weren't talking to her.

I got so annoyed, I made fun of her a little bit. "WE KNOW" with eyerolls and such. I feel bad, and I'd like for this to not happen much more. How do I go about responding to her selfish and negative comments about everyday things in life while also being a kind person?

TL;DR Mother is immature sometimes and buts into conversations if we talk about anything she doesn't like. Wondering how to not be rude, but at the same time handle the situation where she doesn't do that as much anymore.

Submitted December 03, 2020 at 08:04AM by Diarrhea_Sprinkler https://ift.tt/36BJYGe