DH, a couple of your stories reminded me of my own:
When I was 22, I decided to move out of my parents' house into my own apartment. My parents were horrified, especially when they saw said apartment (to be fair, it was pretty grotty in a not-great neighborhood). I'm pretty sure no neighborhood would've been good enough, however. My mum kept saying "I just don't understand why you'd want to leave a nice home like ours to live in that SLUM." Then she'd add "I bet your boyfriend put you up to it" (as if I had no mind of my own). I'd been saying that I wanted my own place since I was 18 and hadn't even met my boyfriend yet, but no, it must be all his fault.
Meanwhile, my dad said darkly "If you move out, your mother and I will probably get a divorce. You're the only thing holding our marriage together." Over 25 years later, they're still married.
On a different topic - this wasn't a criticism, but more like an "Argh! WHY did you say that?" I was a secretary for a while, and one day the company's publicists took my boss and me to lunch at a very nice restaurant. I was secretly thrilled, but I tried to play it cool as though I ate business lunches in places like that every day. It just so happened that my mother knew one of the publicists, and when Mum saw her again, she gushed "It was SO nice of you to invite Shalamar along! It was her very first business lunch, and she was SO excited!" Arrrrgh. She couldn't understand why I got upset with her.