My mom is my best friend. Some people think it's weird, but she's supported me more than anyone else.

• For as long as I can remember my mom and I have been close.
• People sometimes think it's weird that I'm so close to my mom.
• Being close to her hasn't stifled my growth.

I'm 35 years old, and my mom is my best friend. For years, I have felt judgment and looks of disbelief when I have told people that my mom is my best friend, but you know what? I'm done feeling shamed for that, and I'm no longer going to apologize.

Yes, my mom is my best friend.

We've always been close

I come from a very small family. Growing up, it was just my brother and me, my mom and dad, and my maternal grandmother. That's it. There were no cousins, aunts, or uncles. So, I grew up very happy with my own presence and enjoyed being independent, including in school.

Since I was also a kid with somewhat odd taste, I was constantly bullied. I never liked having a lot of friends, but I preferred a few close friends to really talk to. So, because of that, my mom and I forged an even closer bond. When I would confide in my mom about being bullied, she was constantly at my side.

As a young girl, I studied music and eventually started performing professionally. Because of this, for my last year of high school, I asked my mom if I could be homeschooled, which would better work for my rehearsal and performance schedules, to which she happily agreed. Since I was young, when I would go on tours, you were required to have an adult chaperone, so my mom would come with me.

This all helped create a strong bond between my mother and me.

She was also close with her mother

I also come from a line of close mothers and daughters. My mother was very close with her late mother and her mother before then. I am happy to keep the tradition going now that I'm a mom myself to a five-year-old girl and a ten-month-old son. I hope that my daughter and I (and my son, of course) will be as close as my mom and I are.

In the past, I have been met with two responses when I tell people that I am so close to my mom. There are people who tell me I'm too close with her and that's not good, and then people who think it's wonderful — and hope that they too will have such close relationships with their children one day.

I am proud to call my mom my best friend. I mean, this is the woman who gave me life. I'm thrilled to be able to talk to her about anything, have her constant love and support, and, even more importantly, have her unbiased views. My mom has never been the type to just tell me what she thinks I want to hear, but what I need to hear. She tells it like it is, and that has been a great benefit on every level.

Being close to my mom has not stifled my growth, as so often people believe is the case of someone being too close to a parent. If anything, it has helped me grow. I am happily living my life in Italy with my husband and our two children.

I felt confident enough to move to Italy at the age of 24, thanks to my mom's encouragement. My mom has been a constant cheerleader in my life. I am so blessed to have her, and I hope and pray every day that I am half the mom to my children that she is to me.