Readers and audiences know that when someone is not present is when others reveal how they fell about the missing party. Your mother is never happy. She asked what the food was, as if she couldn't tell. Then, she examined it like Quincy. To ask if we have any Rolaids, the nerve of that woman.
Readers recognize anger in the speaker's words.
The writer can omit a detailed history. The example is superior to the alternative. I don't like your mother. She put on a show, insulting my cooking just to be spiteful. The blunt, but accurate, version is boring.