Every time I start to feel sorry for her she reminds me why I shouldn't

[Srcyu]

I love your reference to the pandemic.
It's un-nerving that she has the wits about her to get so far along the road to be actually discussing property with someone. The best bit of course is that you can silently watch and always be one jump ahead.

[Sneezy]

My mom talks about moving on a regular basis.  She is going to move out of independent senior living and into a regular apartment.  Or she is going to move back to the town she used to live in.  Or she is going to move from the third floor down to the first floor.  And on and on and on.  And every time she would bring up moving, I used to engage and she would get a reaction out of me, which is all that she really wanted.  I would JADE like crazy, telling her all the reasons why she should stay where she is.  That's exactly what she wanted - a big fight or a long discussion that focused on her.  Nowadays, I just tell her she can move wherever she wants.  A while back she kept talking about a new place she wanted to move to.  We happened to be out and so I drove over to the new place and parked and suggested we go in and request a tour.  Well, that put the stop to that.  She had no desire to get out of the car and actually go in and take a tour and seriously consider moving.  It was all about getting attention, stirring the pot, and keeping the focus on her.

[Fiasco]

A while back she kept talking about a new place she wanted to move to.  We happened to be out and so I drove over to the new place and parked and suggested we go in and request a tour.  Well, that put the stop to that.  She had no desire to get out of the car and actually go in and take a tour and seriously consider moving.  It was all about getting attention, stirring the pot, and keeping the focus on her.

I turned it around on mommie dearest and told her moving was a fantastic idea, but not to a new state she should stay with her friends, and here is the best place I toured when I still lived there and you should TOTALLY go visit it and guess what? That put a 100% stop to the whole thing. She doesn't get emails from realtors and no more "boo hoo I"ll die alone". Maybe some day I'll finally take some of the good advice I'm always handing out to others and emotionally detach from her after all.