Mom Threatens to Stop Being Friends With 18-Year-Old Daughter if She Wears a Dress She Doesn't Like to Her High School Graduation

Emmy Pratt • Writer and Editor

Jun 13, 2026 12:30 PM EDT

Should a mom and daughter be 'friends' in the first place?

If you've ever met a mom who is "best friends" with her daughter, you might've seen some red flags. They probably don't have the boundaries a mom and daughter should. The mom might confide in her daughter about her relationship with her father, and the daughter will inevitably feel pressured to emotionally support her mother, even though she shouldn't know these personal details about her parents' relationship in the first place. Oftentimes, immature or young parents want their children to be their best friends, and while that dynamic can develop healthily when the kid is an adult, it's much more difficult to maintain when the kid is a teenager, and they should be seeking counsel with their parents instead of the other way around.

The mother in this story is extremely emotionally immature, which explains why she's willing to cut off her "friendship" with her daughter over something as inconsequential as the dress she wears to her high school graduation. Heck, her graduation gown is going to be covering the dress the entire time! Why would her mother care this much about what she's wearing under the gown?

via Andrew Rivera

_{A model representing a young graduate who wants to wear the dress she wants to wear to graduation without her mother threatening to sever their relationship over it.}
Am I the bad guy for buying the outfit I want to wear for graduation at the cost of my ‘friendship’ with my mom?

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via Rafael Jimenez

_{A representation of a young woman shopping for dresses for her high school graduation. Little does she know that her mom won't like the dress she chooses.}
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via Leslie Tzoy

_{A model pretending to be the mother, who is willing to risk her relationship with her daughter over something as petty as a dress.}
If you have a mother like this, how do you deal with it? Do you try to limit contact with her as much as possible? Do you let her get her way on the small stuff because you know that it's not a fight worth having? What should this girl do?