How often should adult children call their parents?
Post your answer in the LEAVE A COMMENT section below. I’m not the boss of you, though. Don’t write anything for all I care! But your mother would want you to.
. . .here are my thoughts.
How often should adult children call their parents?
Have you ever wondered about the benefits of being an only child? I have one older sibling, so yeah, I have. No hand-me-down clothes. No preconceived notions about you from the English teacher who asks a question in the form of a statement with upward inflection: “You’re Jim’s brother?” And, of course, no feeling of guilt when you’re 40 years old and your mother secretly (but not too secretly), thinks you should call her more often. And where do you suppose she acquired that frame of reference. You guessed it—from Jim. Her first-born is much more the talker than her baby-boy. I mean, come on, a phone call nearly every day of the week?! I go full days without even talking to my wife—that is, if you exclude the ventriloquist comments our dogs communicate via their human dummies. Every damn day?! The way I see it, my weekly biweekly whenever-the-mood-strikes phone calls dilute big brother’s daily calls to a respectable average. So what’s the optimal time frame between calls? Hell if I know, but this post alone should build me up at least, what, a month’s worth of goodwill?
Thanks to Debra Heffron for suggesting this question on the Comments & Suggestions page. If you, too, have a question you want answered by the likes of me, click on the link.
Depends on where we are in life. I checked at least once by phone. As they aged it was several times a day and a visit daily. My girls are very busy working and family. Mike and I are blessed with good health and very independent. There are times they go several days without calling. I’m fine with that. I’m sure if we needed them they would be right over. I hope we can remain this way for a long time. Truthfully the daily calls are nice but I don’t want to nag.
You don’t have to call or text every day because that’s not you. You have been calling more lately. See I noticed. It’s nice to hear from you even if you just call or text to say hello. Love you.
[Pretend I didn’t write any response here. It’d be on par with not calling or texting. So I didn’t just write this explanation of my cleverness, making it that much more clever. Shit, now even I’m confused.]
Good question. My answer is it depends. When I moved to Cleveland my mother said we should call each other every Wednesday and Sunday because it cost too much to talk everyday. Mom and Dad were younger and in better health so that worked. Once cell phones became popular I would call more often because it didn’t cost me any more per month. Once Mom and Dad got older and sick I called almost daily. It makes mom and dad feel wanted to talk to their kids daily. If I had remained in Youngstown I would have seen them daily. So, Brad, at least text mom everyday.
But isn’t there some saying about absence and a fonder heart?
My mom texts me a “word of the day” every day. She can’t understand why I don’t respond when I’m at my “job.”
She’s basically the Merriam-Webster WotD app.