PAMPERED, .......BUT (butt?)

My bachelor son and I share a home. He has a full apartment on the ground floor while I reside upstairs. We finished the upstairs of our split level home first and lived there while we completed the ground floor. We eventually took the double car garage and changed it into a multi-use great room for him. After his father passed away, he continued to live there (seven years now). He had moved back leaving a successful career in Cincinatti, to be with ailing father and grandfather. He dated a classmate through college, law school, and two years employment. (She also became a lawyer.) Our family was fond of her. The relationship could not endure a long distance romance and with no desire to relocate, it ended suddenly eight years ago. Since then, he dated a doctor steadily (eight years now) while they both got their practices going and just recently, their relationship seems to have reached a stalemate. Seven-year itch? An ultimatium? We do not know what the pivotal point was, he is such a private person. Anyway, for now at least, he is a somewhat disgruntled tenant, stressed to the maximum. His usual pleasant demeanor changing to critical complaints makes me wonder about it and worry that somehow his living here is getting the blame for his present predictament. For instance, I had to take towels into his bathroom yesterday, and noticed that there was no tissue on the shelf. I went upstairs, got some of mine and placed it on the holder. Later on, after work, this was his gripe, "Can't we at least buy decent toilet tissue? That stuff you buy is not fit for service station restrooms." I reply, "Just trying to keep a few bucks from going down the drain." So, he retorts, "Oh, no! I can't wait for you to get off that frugal kick. Ever since you heard the word recession, all I've heard is save, save,save. If a lawyer can't afford Charmin, he ought to change professions." That got my dander up and I snapped back, "How do you think you got that education? By us cutting corners and saving?" Later, I sheepishly added, "I know you worked all through school, and then still took student loans, so you should know it does not come easy." To that he replied, "Oh, no, here comes your favorite phrase, 'Poor people have poor ways!' '' Mom, you have not been "poor" for at least 50 years, (since you married Dad). Why do you still believe you are.? " I didn't say, "Well, I thought I was for sixteen years prior to that." He said, "Here we go again. The old outhouse with the Sears, Roebuck catalogue hard times tale!" Later that day, still fuming from his unusual outburst, I thought to myself, "Yes, I lived with parents those years who had endured the Great Depression and survived on their frugal ways." They paid cash on the barrelhead or did without until they could afford something. I was privileged to raise my children in a loving family in good economic times. They never realized any struggles that we might have had financially. But with my firstborn I can remember hanging her cloth diapers on the clothesline in freezing weather, They froze dry. Now, with my son, Pampers had come along. And so began the Pampered generation. Maybe that it to blame for the present panic felt by an economy doing a nosedive. Pampers, thats it. Wonder what he will tell his children (if he ever has any) about hard times when he was little. I can imagine it something like this: "Would you believe we didn't even have wind- shield wipers on the commodes or hiney blow- dryers? I don't know how we survived those hard times and that awful toilet paper." Well, I have vented now and feel better. I do not mean that I do not fully appreciate all he does.. I love him with all my heart , and I know he loves me, also. Now, if he could just quit smoking.....................! the blame for his present predictament.