My mom was always doing that, always claiming that she was looking out for my "best interests." I didn't really understand what my "best interests" were back then. I couldn't see the mistakes I was making when I was in the process of making them. I guess that's how mistakes work. If you know something is a mistake, you probably won't make it, and since you don't know it is a mistake, you can't see it. Now that I'm a few years older, I can understand why she was worried about me. I can look back on my childhood and see all the things I did that kept her up late at night and gave her more gray hairs.