Why can't my mother just tell me how proud she is?

She might be an asshole. It is definitely not your fault. Lots of people have asshole mothers. At some point, you will become your own parent and then you can be proud of yourself.

A more interesting question is: Why do you need her to acknowledge that she's proud? And in what way is she proud? Proud of herself, or of you?

This is a hard question, and I am afraid there is no easy answer. Sometimes we try so hard to make someone proud and we feel like they never even see us. Know that just because she does not say it out loud does not mean that she does not think it. Sometimes it is hard for people to say positive things. it may sound silly but it is true. You can't make someone do something, so work on making yourself proud and in time your mom might come around.

The only way to know for sure is to ask her. But she could lie anyway. I can only tell my thoughts about the situation and share my experience. She envies you. She wants to feel she is better than you, but your success makes her feel she is not good enough for you, and she is afraid you can see her insecurity and feel confident at the same time. At least, this is what my dad answered, when I asked him why he never says anything warm to me.

She won't tell you because it's part of her pride. Moreover, she's not convinced you've reached your full potential yet, even if you do well in your life and she is already thrilled about your achievements.

Our parents do struggle at times to put their feelings about us in to words, especialy feelings of pride. Somethines they may find it arwkard, or the topic may not come up. Also, I find many mums or dads, show they are proud of their kids by actions, not necessarily visible either.

Some people do not know how to tell others how they feel even if they are a mother or a father. Sometimes you just have to sit down with her and tell her all you want is for her to be proud of you and maybe that will hit her and she'll understand she needs to do that more than she already is. Telling them is the best thing you can do because if you don't tell them they might not know you feel this way and so she will think until you tell her that she is showing that she is proud of you because that's how she shows it and that is what she is used to having shown to her.

People have different ways of showing the way they feel. It is a person on person basis. She may run on tough love, or maybe she is waiting to tell you for a later time. Just because a person doesn't say how they feel doesn't mean they aren't proud

Probably she doesn't know how to or what to say. Parents are not conditioned to speak positively to their children because for generations together they have been taught or seen otherwise. So they say what they have seen there parents say to them. If you really want to know what your mother thinks of you then sometimes it just might be a good idea to give her a leading question like why is it that you do so much for me.. instead of saying why can't you say something good about me.. because with the second question you are putting her on a defensive mode but with the first question you are acknowledging her efforts and also lookin for the answer you might want to receive.

Some people makes it hard to express how they feel and so they don't really know how to show it that well.