I have a golden retriever and 2 five month old cats. My golden retriever is a sweet and gentle dog and does not intentionally try to hurt anybody, and is gentle with my cats, but sometimes she gets really playful and jumpy around them. She runs around in circles, barks, pounces right near them, chases them (only a bit) and snaps the air around them.

She is not trying to be agressive, but I am afraid that this type of play around them is NOT acceptable and may lead to worse behavior. Also, it makes my cats scared of my dog when we are trying to make their relationship better.
So the main problem is that my mom actually encourages this behavior! She claps her hands and gets all excited and praises my dog when she is doing this because she thinks its cute for her to play with them. My thought is that dogs shouldnt play with cats because this can lead to worse problems and can be dangerous.

Also i told my mom, what if she accidentily bites the cats? My mom said, "oh, she has ….
…….a gentle bite, so its ok" or
"oh, why are you so hard on her? the cats play bite her all the time! shes just playing!"
When i try to tell her that its different between cats and dogs and its not acceptable, she just brushes it off and ignores me.
I cant STAND it because i know im right and that one day my dog could accidentily hurt my cat. My mom WONT listen to me and thinks im just overreacting! what should i do?????