Definition: Given a real-life anecdote of a complex ethical situation, generate a suitable title that describes the main event/root cause of the situation. Imagine that the given text is a social media post, and you have to write the title of the post, so the users can decide to read the main text or not.
Input: My mom basically wants me to be her best friend. She tells me all of her most intimate thoughts and feelings. She wants me to do the same, and if I don’t volunteer, she will ask again and again. If that doesn’t work, she’ll overshare and then guilt trip me into levelling with her. At least that’s what it feels like – but I can’t actually know that she’s consciously being that manipulative. Maybe she's just desperate to be close to me.

I have gotten better at setting up boundaries for myself, even if it is stressful to enforce them. I sometimes slip up because I’m tired, and it makes me feel more naked than being without clothes ever has. But even when I make her stay clear of that, it takes emotional effort to talk to her. She’s a very negative person. Her two subjects for conversation are complaining about mundane stuff, and shit talking other people. I have pointed out many times that I don't like this, especially the badmouthing, but she seems unable to come up with anything else. Of course I try to provide subjects, but if I get into my own stuff she starts with the prying again.

She gives me a break from time to time, but for long periods she will call me incessantly – sometimes multiple times a day. If I don’t respond for a few days, she’ll lament to other family members that she’s worried I must be having a depressive episode (which I had in my teenage years, but I’m not unstable enough for anyone else to overthink my behaviour in this way). Then my family members text me and say I need to give her a call, because she’s feeling rejected and I’m making her worried.

What I would really like is to have an amicable, but less intimate relationship with her. I would love to come visit my parents for dinner perhaps once a month, just updating each other on our lives and discuss some interesting topics. Is that unusually distant? Do I need to accept that this emotional labour is my job as her daughter? She has few friends she feels close to. She’s still married to my father though, so she’s not completely alone. She also has my brother, but for some reason she’s not that obsessed with him.

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1) I feel guilty for keeping her at the distance I already do, refusing to confide in her and to be her confidante to the degree she wants. AITA about that?

2) AITA If I reduce contact with her? Bear in mind, reducing contact would mean blatantly ignoring her (and my family's requests to call her), because she ignores my expressed wishes to talk less frequently. She makes a sad voice and says she's just so hungry for contact. The more I answer her, the more she calls.

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TL;DR: AITA if I insist on a level of closeness that I would prefer, even if it hurts my mother? She’s not abusive, but has boundary issues and fills my head with negativity.

not wanting a close relationship with my mom