Interesting about mothers and not liking them. I just had a family reunion in Kansas City with both sons. We hadn't been all together for almost 7 years. Space, distance, moving and economics played a big part in the gap.
Anyhow, talking about my mother and how she pitted each of the children against the other and withheld care and attention when we didn't guess what it was that she wanted of us, my older son remarked that it was typical of her background. I had never thought of it like that -- impersonal -- It didn't make me like her any better, but I could understand better. She is long gone and none of us really mourned the way we did for my father.
Mim