mothers make me crazy.

or is just me?  Since being back at home, nothing drives me more bonkers than my mother.  Not that I was unaware of what I was getting myself into, I knew.  I just didn’t know how crazy it was going to be.  So this morning I tell my mother, I can take you to work.  To which she replies, I can take the bus.  I answer, I don’t have work until 10 this morning.  So minutes later, I realize she has left.  I call her, and I asked her why did go take the bus when I said I could take her to work?  She answers that she thought I said I can’t take her to work.  She then informs me she hates these english words, can, can’t.  (actually she hates contractions because if it was can not, it would have been ok and similar to the khmer language) Is this is a great example of the cultural divide?  Am I just being language insensitive?  I try to use khmer as much as possible, but face, it english is my first language therefore, it just comes out more naturally.  But then again, my mother never seems to listen, always imagining that I am still that little child who would never have anything important to say.  Being back at home has definitely made me feel as if any “growing up” I did has regressed into nothingness.