Family Not Understanding World of Warcraft

My mom is coming into town. While a huge part of me is going “YaY! Mom! (I was never one to call my mom mommy) Can I have a backrub? (She gives excellent back rubs)”, another part of me is going, “Ah shit. What am I going to do about WoW?”

My mom hates World of Warcraft. Not that she’s ever even tried to understand it. She saw some show on Opera or Dr. Phil about MMO games being bad bad bad, and World of Warcraft was mention as one of the leading ones. It didn’t help that she thought gaming in general bad even before that. I did get a Gameboy for my 12th birthday, but that was from my dad (using my mom’s money tho, lol), and my mom couldn’t say shit because I was going though health issues, and really, I think she was glad I had something to distract me. She doesn’t understand that I have friends online, or that it basically to the place of time that I spent in front of the TV, randomly browsing sites online, or sleeping. It simple replaced my other time wasting activities. And she doesn’t get that the people are real people that I get to know.

I’m not saying that WoW can replace living in the real world. I am well aware that it’s a game in a fantasy world, and defeating the Lich King won’t pay the bills, get me a better job, or impress generations to come. “Ah see, my dear niece, while your Aunty B. over there was the captain of her college soccer team (she’s not, yet) and they won whatever is the major soccer championship called (they haven’t), I, I killed the Lich King!” LOL. I sure hope no one actually thinks of becoming a KS a major achievement in life, and if they do, I suggest they take a step back and re-evaluate their values. And having real life friends is still a must. But I’m digressing from my point. Again. My point is I like spending my free time playing a game I enjoy, with people I enjoy spending time with. What’s wrong with that?

So anyways, she’s visiting, and I have a raid on Monday. Not just any raid, which otherwise I would simply say I can’t come. It’s a Time to Finally Re-attemt to Kill the Lich King raid. I doubt we’ll kill him, but we’ve got phase one down, and hope to get phase 2 down next Monday. This wouldn’t be so much of an issue if they raid started at 9-ish my time, but being in Hawaii, it will start at 5:30. Which in my mom’s eye’s is dinner time. So basically I want to be in two places at the same time. I want to be at dinner with my mom,and I want to be with my guild kicking the Lich Kings arse. And tbh, I kinda want to kill him more than have dinner with mom. Which makes me feel terribibble. But it’s not like it’s the only night I can eat dinner with her, she’ll be here for nearly a week. Are my priorities mixed up? But lets make this clear: My mom is coming because her work is bringing her here. I asked my mom and dad to come for Thanksgiving, but apparently they can’t. And yes, I am slightly resentful for that.

So what should I do? I think I am going to say that I simply need Monday night to myself, and I need her to respect that. But I’m not sure I can pull that off. I get slightly defensive when challenged, and can lose my cool fast. Then I end up feeling bad, but still pissed. Damn. I can’t believe I am stressing over this. Maybe I should just say I can’t make it to the raid. Or just forget everything, and see how it goes.