Well, ask her if she wants to drink the same water every day for a week that has backwash in it as well as a myriad of other things. EEWww.

And from a mother's point of view: She's trying so very hard to make her new apartment feel like a home. I have area rugs on my wall to wall carpets... thats because these areas are either
1. high traffic areas and I want to protect the carpet from wear/constant stains
2. The carpet already has stains that I want to cover... my bedroom has an area carpet because I dropped a hot iron that melted the fibers (I dropped it a few times) and I spilled a bottle of India Ink on the same carpet. I'm a klutz, what can I say?
3. The carpet is not something she'd have chosen herself, but the area rug will blend the furniture and her carpet ok and she'll be able to live with it.
I have bought these carpets while shopping with my kids. Each time, they wanted something too that got answered with "We don't have the money." What you don't know is that perhaps your mom worked overtime last week just so that she could get this. Ot that she saved $20 here and there just for the carpet.

Now, that said, if she bought the carpet on the spur of the moment, then you have reason to be annoyed.

I've thought about that camera for my daughter, but won't because she'll be costing me a fortune in ink and paper to print everything or another fortune running to Walmart for prints every week. She'd take a gazillion pictures (like I do) but instead of chosing one or two to print, she'd print them all I know that and so does she.