Mom: Janice (56)

Daughter: Lace (27)

Location: Columbia, South Carolina

The Odd Couple

Even though Lace (the daughter) has been a homeowner for half a year now, she can count the number of nights she’s spent alone in her house on one hand. Instead, she is always over at her mom’s place, sleeping in her mom’s bed. If she does sleep in her own house, Lace almost always asks her mom to stay over. In fact, Lace spends so little time in her own home, she’s considering renting it out so that she can permanently reside with mom. They are best friends, and Janice is good company, so why not? Well, at 27 years old, plenty of people think that Lace needs to start a life of her own.

Though Lace and Janice were always close, Janice once had equally close relationships with her other kids as well (Alex, her middle child, recalls being a mama’s boy growing up). However, as the years went on, Lace’s two older brothers moved away from home, growing up and growing apart from their mom. Lace and Janice, however, only got closer with age, and nothing quite matches a mother’s bond with her daughter. Even though Janice knows her sons are jealous, she wouldn’t change her closeness with Lace for anything.

Lace was in the army for several years, and when she was away in army training, her mom sent her several letters a day; she sent so many letters, in fact, Lace became known for it on the army base. Her superiors would tell her that for every letter she received, she had to do ten push-ups. For two weeks, Lace wasn’t able to open her mail. After those two weeks were up, Lace had to do over 200 push-ups because of all the letters from her mom she’d accumulated. Eventually, Lace had to leave the army and move back home; she was just too homesick to continue.  

Janice is also inserting herself into Lace’s health and fitness. Lace loves food, perhaps a little too much, and according to mom, has gained an unhealthy amount of weight. Lace eats all the wrong foods (fast food, processed foods, chips and snacks…) all foods that lead to constipation. It gets really bad for Lace. Fortunately mom has a nursing background so she knows how to insert a suppository to help to trigger a bowel movement. It’s certainly an extreme comfort level that they have achieved! Janice wants to put Lace on an anti-constipation and weight loss diet, incorporating healthful foods that won’t obstruct her GI tract. Mom and daughter plan on going on a health and weight loss journey together. They’ll feel better, and of course look better!

Once upon a time, it was Lace, Janice, and Lace’s father (Janice’s now ex-husband) that were all close together. They even used to call themselves “Destiny’s Child” and viewed themselves as a trio of sorts. However, Lace and Janice have since completely lost trust in him. On a drive around town, the two happened to catch Janice’s husband/Lace’s father in an act of cheating. Both Lace and Janice saw him in a truck making out with another woman. Ever since then, Janice has been legally separated from her husband, now facing the fallout from his reckless decisions.

Janice and Lace have access to one another’s indoor security cameras at their respective homes. If Lace has a date over to either of their homes Janice has no problem snooping on her daughter’s every move. “I’m going to continue to monitor her as much as I want and however I want to,” Janice unabashedly admits. Janice instructs Lace to stay in the kitchen where the camera quality is the best and microphone is the loudest whenever she invites guests over; that way, Janice can hear everything and put a stop to it if she thinks things are going too far. If Lace is upstairs where there aren’t any cameras for more than ten minutes, Janice will also take it upon herself to slow things down. Whenever Janice wants her daughter to cut it out, she meows loud enough for her daughter to hear.

It’s not just the men in Lace’s life Janice wants control over, either. If Lace wants to go out with friends, she’ll encourage her mom to go to bed early, giving her a glass of wine and making sure she falls asleep before Lace sneaks off into the night. Lace worries that her mom will become jealous or feel left out if she hangs out without her, which results in a lot of going behind Janice’s back. Janice responds with, “I’m giving up my time and my love, so she needs to be here [at home] with me.” Lace asserts that, even though she loves her mom, she’s not a teenager anymore; she’s an adult that pays her own bills. She has her own life, too. That’s a sentiment that isn’t always received well by mom.  

Even though Lace is still young, she is yearning deeply for a meaningful connection. Her longest relationship lasted about a year, but unfortunately ended when she caught him cheating (which made the situation with her dad all the more painful.) These days, Lace isn’t interested in dating just for the sake of dating. She wants someone she can build a life with and someone who will love her for who she is. Of course, this will be complicated if she will be living at home with her mom. How can Lace build a connection with someone when Janice is watching her every move, intervening whenever she pleases? Perhaps she’ll have to entertain and date all of her suitors at her own house, far away from mom and hope that mom isn’t spying on the date… 

Janice wants to move on from her husband, but she thinks Lace’s love life is a bigger priority than her own. But Lace wants mom to start dating too. It’s something that they can do together. Although nervous, Janice is open to putting herself out there again! Even though Lace is excited to potentially move back permanently, she’s worried that it’s a step back from achieving the independence that deep down she knows that she probably needs. Separating, however, is easier said than done!