Louisiana Woman Buys Cranberry Juice. Then Her Mom Starts Screaming at Her: ‘Make that Make Sense.’
Sometimes one small misunderstanding can snowball into an explosive fight. Kate Hall Wilson (@katehallwilson) has a liking for cranberry juice, but didn’t expect it to be the source of a heated argument between her and her mom.
Wilson claimed that she was around sixteen or seventeen when she went to the store to buy cranberry juice, after which the fight began.
“I bring it home, I put it in the fridge, and I get a text from my mom,” Wilson recalled. She was being summoned downstairs to the kitchen. She didn’t think much of it and went down. But when she got there, Wilson said her mother was upset.
What’s with cranberry juice?
“I mean, golly, what did I freaking do now? What could I have possibly done?” Wilson said. Perhaps she didn’t put her laundry away? Maybe she’s been told to throw trash but forgot to do it. Sometimes, parents can get upset when a kid forgets to do chores. But in some extreme cases, parents could also react extremely over something that seems insignificant.
But Wilson said that her mother was so mad, she thought she was either getting beaten, kicked out, or both.
“She proceeds to accuse me of sleeping around, being sleazy,” Wilson said. The reaction confused her, as she didn’t understand where the allegations were coming from. She also claimed that she’s only ever been at school, at work, or at home and has never given her mother a reason to assume that she’s been sexually active.
She says she was asked, “Why are you buying cranberry juice? What are you doing?”
“I just like the taste of cranberry juice,” she replied. Wilson said that she wasn’t thinking of anything illicit at the time. Despite her excuse, Wilson alleged that her mother went to the sink and poured her juice into the drain. She also told her daughter that she’s no longer allowed to buy cranberry juice anymore.
“Cranberry juice has good benefits no matter what you’re doing,” Wilson argued. She expressed her frustration because she bought the cranberry juice with her money. And yet, her mother felt entitled to dictate what she could and couldn’t purchase.
“Make that make sense,” she said. So, why was Wilson’s mother concerned about cranberry juice? There is a longstanding assumption that cranberry juice can help prevent urinary tract infection (UTI). But according to Kendall Morgan, Ph.D., studies show mixed results.
Nevertheless, UTI is a common infection women may contract after sexual intercourse. However, there are other ways people could be infected with UTI, depending on age and other risk factors. Hence, the underlying assumption is that Wilson’s mother thought her daughter was trying to prevent a UTI with cranberry juice because she’s presumed to be sexually active.
Comments weighed in on the story, with one calling her mother’s behavior “toxic.”
One comment reads, “Why is everything sexualized now?” Other commenters shared their experiences of seemingly mundane acts being interpreted under a sexualized lens.
Another person said, “My mom said I’m letting everyone know I’m single and “ready” because I wear anklets.”
But someone else wrote, “I wanna know what history she’s got with cranberry juice.” Others also claimed that her mother must have been “projecting” on Wilson. Parents and children are not always going to see eye-to-eye. But at times, all it takes to bridge the gap is for a parent to reach out and understand what their child is going through.
(featured images: Nguyễn Tiến Thịnh, Kate Hall Wilson, Jill Burrow)
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