Mom: Gillian (63)

Daughter: Skylar (28)

Location- Mom: London, UK  Daughter: Rapid City, South Dakota

Mom Occupation: Author, Property Manager & Nutritionist

Daughter Occupation: Lawyer & Stay At Home Mom

Mum’s The Word

This posh mom and daughter hailing from the United Kingdom have lived a charmed life. From private schools to luxury vacations to celebrity studded events (with likes of the Jonas Brothers, Prince Harry and Beyoncé to name drop just a few), this duo lives extravagantly . Some of their favorite pastimes together include spa days at The Four Seasons, lunch at Nobu, and of course, high-tea at the Plaza while in New York. However, Skylar’s life took a dramatic left turn when she met a handsome Air Force officer stationed in London, became engaged, had a baby, got married, and relocated (due to the military) to Rapid City, South Dakota where they currently live. It’s a far cry from the life that her mother groomed her for. Now, Skylar is across the pond and miserable without her mother, so Gillian is uprooting her life and moving in with Skylar and her husband to help Skylar adjust to life in the United States. It will be an incredible reunion of mom and daughter, but a major adjustment for all parties involved…

Skylar met Aaron on a dating app while he was stationed at a U.S. Air Force base in England. A year later they were engaged. A year after that their child was born (there could only be one birth person in the delivery room and it was mom who cut the umbilical cord, which led to a huge fight between Aaron and Skylar.) Although Gillian has no personal grudge against Aaron, she doesn’t understand why Skylar would complicate her life in such a significant way: moving across the world, far from family to a new culture she doesn’t know or understand. Aaron is an all-American boy who comes from humble beginnings. He couldn’t be more different than Skylar or the way she was raised. Skylar is now dealing with the consequences of her decision that mom warned her about…

According to the whole family, Skylar is 100% obsessed with her mother and their relationship is beyond suffocating. Skylar calls mom constantly to the point that mom can’t get anything done. It’s extreme and stifling and it’s coming from Skylar’s unfilled need to have mom physically with her at all times. When together, their relationship does blur boundaries. Mom breast fed Skylar until she was five and is now encouraging Skylar to continue breast feeding her son way past the time when she should have quit (another point of contention for Aaron). Mom will help to wax her daughter. She’ll dress her daughter. When Skylar is bathing her son she’ll be nude in the bathtub and mom will come in the bathroom to help wash both her daughter and her grandson. It goes without saying that this relationship is extremely uncommon for British moms and daughters, who are traditionally known for conservative and very civil relationships. Instead, Skylar and Gillian are entwined in a way that makes separation and boundaries difficult to delineate.

Yet another complication for the Skylar and Aaron’s complicated relationship is Skylar’s frequent extended trips where she visits mom. She recently went to Spain for two months (with her mother, of course) and to South Africa for another (again, with her mother). In fact, Skylar is gone from South Dakota so often, that at one point Aaron legitimately thought that Skylar had left him. He called her in tears and begged her to come home. She knows that this long time apart is putting a strain on her marriage, but she also can’t just resign herself to not seeing her mom for extended periods of time. She has to find some sort of life line. The solution? Mom is going to move in with Aaron in Skylar in their basement studio apartment in South Dakota. Aaron is often left in the lurch as an outsider in his own family. Plus, there seems to be a disconnect and a rift brewing between Gillian and Aaron’s mom (Jessica). Gillian claims that she invited Jessica to the wedding, but Jessica claims that she never heard from her. Jessica also claims that she reached out to Gillian and never heard from her. These two women are also from different backgrounds who are now connected because of their children and have to find a way to get along, despite their differences.

The hope is that Gillian moving to South Dakota will help Skylar adjust to her new life as a stay at home mom and her place in Rapid City. It can’t be all! By moving to South Dakota, Gillian is hoping that she can help her daughter adjust and acclimate. The two have considered meeting other ex-pats, starting a club, and finding other like-minded mom’s or people in the area. Although the resources in Rapid City are less when compared to that of a cosmopolitan city, Skylar and Gillian aren’t giving up on rural America. They are determined to give it a fair shot before waving the white flag. There must be a way to bridge the cultural divide and the hope is that mom is the proverbial Mary Poppins to make it happen.  

And it couldn’t happen at a better time. Gillian and Skylar both admit that Skylar isn’t happy in her marriage and something has to give. Aaron can’t change who he is or where he lives, so the only options are either Skylar gets a divorce (which she doesn’t want to do —

she especially doesn’t want that for her son) or mom can move in. If mom moves in, Skylar will be happy and thereby hopefully making a happy marriage. A lot of things have to go right in order for this plan to work, but they’re going to give it a shot. Skylar’s sister, Afton, thinks that Skylar and Aaron are doomed. They have nothing in common and were a bad match from the beginning. Afton thinks that Skylar was trying to prove independence to her family by making this very impulsive and drastic life change. If she was doing it for attention, she certainly got their attention. But at what cost?

Afton at one point tried to live with Skylar and Aaron, but after three months couldn’t stomach it and moved back to Los Angeles. It wasn’t just South Dakota; she also couldn’t get along with Aaron. The two had a blow up fight, and Afton left so abruptly that she left multiple suitcases of her belongings behind. Afton felt Aaron was an obsessive neat freak and could never be made happy. He was a nightmare to live with, so much so that he even made a chore chart for Afton and Skylar. Based on her experience, Afton is concerned how mom is going to get along (or not get along with) Aaron when they have to live together. Especially a space that belongs to Aaron. Afton does want her things back so she’s planning to go and visit mom and Skylar once mom moves in. It’ll be a British Invasion!

The only person who does not know about this plan for mom to move in is dad. All the girls in the family have kept it a secret because they know that once he finds out that he’ll be livid and he’ll try to put a stop to it. Skylar and Gillian can’t have that, so they plan to tell him when he can’t alter the plan.

Aaron recently broke the news to Skylar that he wants to leave the military and start a political career in South Dakota, only further establishing their roots in the community. This is not ideal for Skylar who ultimately wants to move somewhere else with her family. Having mom in South Dakota is the temporary solution, but Gillian can’t and won’t stay forever. This is the life that Skylar has chosen. Not Gillian. At some point, Skylar is going to need to make very real and fundamental choices and realizations for herself, without her mom’s help. Plus, Aaron wants more kids, whereas Skylar is content with just one and doesn’t want any more. Only time will tell if Skylar and Aaron’s love is strong enough to overpower their different upbringings, lives, and goals and of course: Skylar’s relationship with Gillian.