The fact that Lis picked on him really upset little Marvin…he went home one day after an especially bad episode and told his mother what Lis had done to him. “Mom, she hates me, and I don’t know why,” he whined.

“Don’t whine, dear,” Marvin’s mother told him. “It’s annoying.”

Marvin’s mother asked if he had ever done anything to Lis to make her pick on him. “I told her once that she was cute,” he said, “but why would that make her hate me?” Then he started making clicking noises with his tongue.

“Don’t make clicking noises with your tongue, dear,” Marvin’s mother told him. “It’s annoying.”

Marvin made a face. “Don’t make faces, dear,” Marvin’s mother told him. “It’s annoying. And your face will stick that way.”

Twenty minutes later, he had been told not to crack his knuckles, pace, jump up and down like he had to pee, pick his nose, roll his eyes, tap his fingers, rip up napkins, hum, whistle, crack his gum, or ask the same question over and over and over and over. “Marvin,” his mother finally asked him, “do you do the same kinds of things around Lis?”

Marvin thought about it for a minute. “Yes, I guess so,” he conceded.

“Well, if you stop doing them, maybe she’ll like you,” his mother advised.

The next day at school, Marvin was a completely different little boy. He was quiet, calm, and he never did any of his annoying habits. And you know what? Marvin and Lis have been married now for 15 years. However, Marvin’s mother still lives with them, and Marvin has been in and out of therapy for codependency for a very long time.