My mother is not content enough to be merely PA, she makes sure that other people suffer publicly for what she perceives are failures to act on the part of other people. As an example, her friend had been extremely ill for some time. Every time either my brother or I spoke to mother, we inquired about friend's health etc., so it's not like we were completely insensitive to the issue. I work about 45 hours a week and go to grad school, so there are weeks that I get so busy that I literally do not have time to sleep, never mind check in with mother on a daily basis. So one of those weeks rolls around and it's something like 8-9 days since I've last spoken to my mother. When I call her and do the usual routine of asking about friend she said quite bitterly "Well if you took the time to call more often, you would know that we BURIED HER ON MONDAY."! Yup, seems that she was more interested in making her PA point that I don't call her often enough that she failed to tell either my brother or I about the death, and the two of us were pointedly missed at the funeral. We looked like insensitive sots for skipping the event, and my mother enjoyed her revenge.