It Wasn’t Me - Denial or Don’t Remember

It is interesting to me that people deny they did something wrong, even when they did it. Embarrassment? Shame? Afraid? I am not sure.

I have discovered that Mom exhibits the behavior of denial frequently.

The Case of Missing Food.

1.      The Missing Vegetables

Making dinner one evening, I searched high and low for vegetables, and was unable to find them. Checked with my husband. “Wasn’t me,” he said. Asked Mom – “wasn’t me” she said (I saw her eating vegetables at lunch). Hmm?

2.      The Missing Beets

I always have a jar of beets on hand to add to my salad. As with the vegetables, they must have lost their way out of the refrigerator because after frustratingly looking, I could not find them. Mom happened to be watching me and so I asked her if she had seen the jar of beets, and she mentioned that it was my husband who ate them. An entire jar? Eating an entire jar of beets in one sitting seemed a bit much for a single person. I dropped it and moved on to having a salad without beets. Later, I asked my husband if he ate the beets and he said, “wasn’t me” but I saw mom eating them.

3.      The Missing Shredded Chicken (for the Dogs)

Our two pups have digestive issues, and so we include boiled chicken breasts in their food. I made a new batch and went into the refrigerator to add it to their afternoon meal, only to find that it was gone. Of course, “it wasn’t me” was the answer I received when I checked.

Items in my refrigerator now have sticky notes with a name on it to designate to whom it belongs, or a word about what it is for (chicken for the dogs). It is like using the one at the office. If you did not claim it with your name, there was no guarantee that it would be there when you were ready to eat it.

The Ceiling Fan

There is an all-out war over running the ceiling fan(s). My husband likes to leave the ceiling fans on all the time (he says it helps circulate the air and keeps things cool). Mom is always cold and turns it off when she goes into the room. This is a daily occurrence, and we all know that my husband turns it on, and Mom turns it off. Yet every time my husband asks, “Who turned off the fan?” mom says, “It wasn’t me.” We all know it was her because she is the only person who turns it off. Since we already know, we stopped asking.

Question for you:

Why do you think Mom denies some of the things she does?