Now that the wedding and all the hype around it has slowly but surely come to a close, we have now reached the next stage of pestering that I also anticipated from my mom: her interrogation regarding who gave what for the wedding and if it was cash, how much cash they gave us.

She literally went guest by guest for who she could remember, and if she didn’t remember their names, she went by the description of how she remembered them. She also made sure to put in some assumptions about people who apparently just “looked” like they were cheap or wouldn’t give any money or gift.

“The Korean couple that came, those are Chris’s friends, right?” my mom asked.

“No, I said. “Those are my friends! Why do you just assume these people are all Chris’s friends?”
“Well, you’ve never mentioned them to me before, so how am I supposed to know?” my mom responded defensively.

“Yes, because if I told you about them, then you’d ask me 500 questions about them all the time!” I shot back.

“How much did they give? They gave you a gift, right?” she asked.

“I’m not telling you how much they gave, but yes, they did give a gift!” I said.

“Why won’t you tell me? I’m not going to take it from you. I just want to know what kind of heart these people have.” Great. Now money is associated with how big a heart our guests have.

“The Korean with the white boyfriend… the one you used to work with at Efficient Frontier.. I’m sure they didn’t give you anything,” mom insisted. “And Chris’s boss… I’m sure he didn’t give you anything, either.”

I responded that they did give a gift and that she shouldn’t be making mean assumptions about people. The response was not good.