I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gotten into a discussion with my family that goes along the lines of “no, it happened like THIS.”

To be honest, I usually concede, because my long-term memory is terrible and I really am probably wrong.

Sometimes though, there’s a memory so formative that a narrative that totally negates it can’t stand.

Like in this story of Halloween horror…

AITA for telling my mom it wasn’t cute or funny to dress me as a hot dog instead of a princess?

The question itself is pretty funny, but the story gets to be a bummer.

So there’s this new Target commercial going around where a little girl dresses as a hot dog, and it came on while my family was watching a scary movie.

I (20F) am home from college for the weekend and brought my boyfriend, and my mother (57F) decided it would be hilarious to mention that she’d made me a hot dog costume as a kid, except the way she told the story, it was my request.

She said that all the girls wanted to be Disney princesses, but I had asked to be a hot dog, and so she’d gone out of her way to make me that costume.

Her version of events is VERY different, however.

This is not what happened, and I said as much.

What actually happened is that I wanted to be Snow White, and had told everyone, including the teachers, that I was going to be Snow White.

I was obsessed with that movie as a kid, to the point where I would actually get invested in doing chores because I was cleaning up just like Snow White.

My dad and I would watch that movie all the time, and I was very excited to be Snow White for Halloween, especially because my ballet studio was doing a special “princess dance,” for Halloween and we’d all signed up for special princess slots, and I’d shown up early with my dad the week before so I could get to be Snow White.

There were threats involved and everything.

My mother decided that she wanted to be quirky and that Snow White was a bad role model after I got in trouble for trying to cook dinner for my family.

I was about eight, and I tried to make hot dogs, like how she made food for the dwarves in the movie, and I made a mess.

My mom “surprised” me on the day of with this crappy hot dog suit, and told me if I didn’t wear it she’d never let me watch Snow White again.

She took a million pictures, the other girls teased me for months, and it was one of the most humiliating moments of my childhood.

Seems like mom put some effort into changing this narrative.

I told the real story, and mentioned that I got through the day by pretending that she was the evil queen making me dress in rags, but the rags happened to be a garbage meat costume.

She got really quiet after that, and after we left, my brother says she was crying and looking at the pictures from that Halloween.

I didn’t want to make my mom cry, but it’s a ****** memory for me and it felt like she was trying to humiliate me all over again in front of my boyfriend.

Let’s see what the comments say:

Others had similar awful holiday haunts.

Some said try to make peace with it.

But I think this might be the best take.

If mom had a realization that she’d done a crappy thing in the past, that’s gonna hurt. That doesn’t mean YOU hurt her.

If she’s willing to apologize, it might be a good time for you to both heal and move forward.

If you liked this post, you might want to read this story about a teacher who taught the school’s administration a lesson after they made a sick kid take a final exam.