To Be Compared To His Mother's

After slaving in the kitchen for several hours in order to prepare a special meal for that special person in your life, there is one comment that will kill any satisfaction that you might have for, in your eyes, succeeding in your endeavor: "My mother's taste better."
Now in order to be a great cook in the kitchen you must be able to take criticisms on the dishes you have prepared.  "This tastes over done, under cooked, too salty, flat, somethings missing..."  These are all basic criticisms to work off of.  But just saying that another person's dish tastes better is not productive.  You are not saying that it is good or bad, just that someone else does it better than you just did.  That hurts.
I have been experiencing this type of critical response for the past 7 months.  I in my 21yrs experience am currently being compared to a mothers 50yrs of experience.  That is 29 more yrs of learning how to make dishes just right in order to please everyone over my own.  And may I say that that is not fair.  Yes this may be my first attempt at making this dish, but at least I am trying.  I can think of a few women in the world who no matter what they make, you won't want to even try the finished dish.  At least the dish that I am presenting is edible.
I have come to believe that those men who only taste dishes in comparison to their mothers are in a sense "momma's boys."  These men are incapable of recognizing the effort that was put in by another woman in making a dish that they knew was a favorite of his.  You might think this is a little harsh, but I ask, isn't it in a sense true?  Some guys may come around and say thank you for the meal or that it was ok, but it still is nothing of a response that you had set on your good to bad meter.
Last night was the first time I got an actual response from my lover about the meal I prepared that actually helped me.  He had been gone for almost a  week on an engineering trip and had explained to me over the phone that he was not having a good time and couldn't wait to come home to me.  So I in my pleasing spirits decided to make one of his favorite meals, which his mother explained to me several months ago how to make.  He was surprised to see that I had attempted it.  And then after he tasted it he actually said it was good.  If you are thinking that maybe he came around and noticed I do not cook the same way his mother does, you would be wrong.  While at the dinner table he explained to me that his mother told him he could not keep criticizing my meals based off hers, that it was rude.  And then he smiled at me.  Thanks mom, I guess.

(This seems a bit like a rambling blog.  I'll try not to do that anymore.  But I can guarantee that this topic will be brought up again.)