When You and Your Mother Can’t Be Friends: Resolving the Most Complicated Relationship of Your Life

This book tackles the often complex and challenging bond between mothers and daughters, with insights that also apply to sons. It explores how your relationship with your mother influences all other connections in your life – from friendships to choosing a romantic partner. It helps you tell the difference between a healthy mother-daughter relationship and a destructive one, and breaks down how mothers may manipulate their daughters, plus how daughters typically react to that behavior. The book addresses the cycles of anger, blame, false expectations, crushed hopes, and disappointments that can repeat across generations, and explains why some people end up being the opposite of their mother while others become almost identical to her – with guidance on how to connect with your true self either way. Drawing on years of research and hundreds of interviews with people in different types of mother-child relationships, Victoria Secunda shows readers how to let go of the past, gain understanding and acceptance, or find a way to achieve peace even if a close friendship with their mother isn’t possible.