"Are you happy?" might carry some nasty implications. These are thought-experiments, not comments on your own actual mother. Choose which ones fit. If none of them do, toss the list in the compost heap.
Because if you're not happy, your mother might feel:
--I am a failure as a mother. I need constant reassurance or my world will collapse. So you'd better be happy, or I will be miserable. This is a huge threat. In the immortal words of John Le Carre, everyone who is not happy must be shot.
--Your husband isn't good enough to you. I told you to marry someone else with a better job/religion/ethnicity/body/bank account/attitude/family. [When my marriage of 16 years broke up, my mother said triumphantly, "That's what you get when you marry someone from Long Island."]
--I was right all those times when I said you're ruining your life with your choice of career/locale/friends/hairstyle/music/religion/reproduction strategy/child-rearing strategy/financial decisions.
Basically, the question is far too loaded, and not asked in good faith. The only right answer is yes, even if you're having a crappy day, or you'll make your mother miserable. Because a crappy day invalidates all the joys, achievements, and pleasures of the rest of your life. But also the only right answer is no, because then all her fears will be justified and you'll need her advice and care.
no subject
Because if you're not happy, your mother might feel:
--I am a failure as a mother. I need constant reassurance or my world will collapse. So you'd better be happy, or I will be miserable. This is a huge threat. In the immortal words of John Le Carre, everyone who is not happy must be shot.
--Your husband isn't good enough to you. I told you to marry someone else with a better job/religion/ethnicity/body/bank account/attitude/family. [When my marriage of 16 years broke up, my mother said triumphantly, "That's what you get when you marry someone from Long Island."]
--I was right all those times when I said you're ruining your life with your choice of career/locale/friends/hairstyle/music/religion/reproduction strategy/child-rearing strategy/financial decisions.
Basically, the question is far too loaded, and not asked in good faith. The only right answer is yes, even if you're having a crappy day, or you'll make your mother miserable. Because a crappy day invalidates all the joys, achievements, and pleasures of the rest of your life. But also the only right answer is no, because then all her fears will be justified and you'll need her advice and care.