Why? She can't change you. Only you can do that and you love your birds and what can you do? Stop loving? Stop your passion? No, you can't do that. When you truly find what you love, you never let it go. My mother is critical of me and my interests too. So please believe me, I know what it's like. She also can have a temper, and in all honestly she has made me cry before because of the way I am. Eventually, she regrets becoming mad and really sits and thinks about why I am not the way she wants me to be. I'm artistic, not athletic. I have anxiety, not perfect mental health. I like birds, not boys. I am not a typical child and sometimes other people don't see eye to eye with you. But in reality, how are their interests any more normal than yours? Why is liking football more acceptable than liking birds? You see a bunch of sweaty guys with bad attitudes throw a ball across a field over and over again? That's entertaining? That's how I see football. Other people see it differently. And I know you don't like sports either, so I'm assuming you see it the same way. And some gritty football fanatics probably see bird keeping as a waste of time, a bird is a bird. You hear it sing and give it seeds, then it dies. You see things the way you see things, and you're not alone. I see my birds as companions, intellectual, understated companions. I see them they way I consider myself. That's why I like them. You are your own individual and you love birds. I love birds. Everybody on this forum loves birds. That shouldn't make you feel bad. Embrace it. It makes you like nobody else. There are too many drones in this world. We need something fresh like you. After all, we need you in the lab working on new genetics for birds.