Denial: It's not just a river in Egypt, sweetie

[Modem Butterfly]

I work with a younger woman who has two mothers. This woman is in her mid-twenties and is not at all shy about mentioning them in conversation, like "My mothers didn't want me to go out of state to college, but I needed to spread my wings," or "I'm going to my moms' house this Xmas". She has a picture of both of her mothers together at what she describes as their "anniversary of their friendship", where they are both wearing tuxedos. She told me all about how, now that they're both retired, they've finally bought the house of their dreams in Naples, FL and can be snowbirds in the winter. People gossiped a bit about it when she started working here about 18 months ago, but such talk died down pretty quickly.

Okay, so today I'm at the water cooler, which is right by her desk, and an openly gay employee and I are talking about marriage equality. The gay employee turns to this woman and says, "You know, I think that it's a shame your mothers can't get married," and the woman's eyes got kind of big and she says, "What are you talking about? Why would they want to do a thing like that?"

The gay employee kind of stammered a bit and I said, "Well, people who have a relationship and children together should be able to..." and the woman cut me off right there.

"My mothers do not have the sort of relationship with each other that you think they do. They're really good friends who have lived together my whole life, and who own a house together and who vacation together. But they aren't some kind of sick couple!"

The gay employee then said, "Do they share a bedroom together?" and she shot him a look that could cut glass. I quickly changed the subject and left as quickly and gracefully as I could.

I hope to hell she's just fucking with us, but she seemed really, really sincere.

[trotsky]

1. LMFAO!!!!

"They're really good friends who have lived together my whole life, and who own a house together and who vacation together. But they aren't some kind of sick couple!"

How is a person that clueless able to function in modern society?

[Modem Butterfly]

3. I have no idea

You know, when she told me about the house they bought together I told her I thought that was really romantic, and she looked at me kind of strangely, but at the time I didn't really think about it.

[MissB]

2. Uh, that is just weird.

I wouldn't know how to take that. She is suggesting that her mothers do not have any sort of sexual relationship at all?

Eh?

[northzax]

4. hey, my mother doesn't have sex

ok, just twice, once for my sister and once for me, but never again. got it?

[MissB]

5. You are right.

I realllllllllly don't want to imagine my parents having sex. Really.

But to deny they have a sexual relationship? That's kinda odd. No, that is realllllllllllly odd.

[Modem Butterfly]

6. For years, I was convinced my parents didn't either...

I mean, I knew on some unconscious level, but in my day-to-day, waking knowledge I figured they lacked the capacity. I think I thought my dad was like a Ken doll, nothing between the knees and navel. I thought this way right up until he got prostate cancer five or six years ago. I still cringe at the memory of my mother complaining to me how their sex life had changed. This is the woman who couldn't even tell me about sex until I was a college freshman, and even then, all she said was that I shouldn't do "that" until I was married.

[MissB]

7. oooh... you got the talk way before I did

She actually never talked about sex. She handed me a note on my wedding day. The rest of the family was handing us envelopes of money, and she handed me a note. I was 26. We'd lived together for two years.

I guess that denial thing goes both ways.

The note, btw, said some stuff about "it" not being pleasant, but I should submit anyway.

M'kay.

[progressoid]

8. Hope she's saved up for her therapy in the near future.

Wow. Just plain wow.

[Modem Butterfly]

9. CLEOPATRA UPDATE!

Okay, so the Queen of Denial just left my office. She came in to apologize for being so abrupt. "It's just that the whole time I was in high school people used to ask me if my moms were lesbians and I constantly had to explain that they weren't," Um, okay.

[kick-ass-bob]

10. wow.

well, maybe she just had the My Two Dads situation - they couldn't figure out who the real mother wa....

uh - nevermind.

:crazy:

[MissB]

11. .

:rofl:

And how does she explain the picture of them in tuxedos? "Oh, they were just playing dress-up."

[redqueen]

14. Oh my GOD!

I just don't even know what to say...

:(

Why wouldn't they be honest with their daughter?!

[redqueen]

12. Oh... Oh my...

Her mothers need to have a talk with her adult daughter, NOW!

She calls them "mothers"... nah... she's GOTTA be having you on.

[Modem Butterfly]

13. God I hope so

But I'm not so sure...