how often do you talk to your parents on the phone?

I skype. They live in Japan. A couple of times a week, I guess. We tend to email and chat (on skype) more often though. I like my dad's email: short anc concise and in ALL CAPS sometimes. Do I look forward to'em? It's a very casual thing, so not like I will jump (I actually typed hump first) up'n' down and get all excited.

Every other week, I figure.

^ this

ditto.

i'm always jealous of the few times a week ppl. i mean, we're just not that way.

Ned, I do hope your chats are longer than your description of'em. ;-)

i hate it.
too fucking intense and serious to go into here, but lets just say i'm not close emotionally to my parents, despite the fact they probably think we are.
however, due to my ongoing "duty", i call every sodding sunday.
i cannot tell you the dread that rises within prior to hitting the dial button.

:-( Oh dear lord. That sounds awful.

i get it

Ned, I do hope your chats are longer than your description of'em. ;-)

Give me SOME credit!

2x-3x a week. They're only 20 miles away, so it changes the nature of the calls from when we lived in CA. Now it's like my mom will call and say "I'm cleaning house, do you need this pile of newspapers? No? Okay, bye."

haha thats cute

It used to be every week-10 days and now it is like every day (weeding shit). I am not used to talking this much; it wears me out.

every other week too. I talk to my mom way more though. i probably talk to my dad maybe once every couple of months and never longer than a few minutes. it's not that we don't get along though, but conversations are just tough with my dad generally - he's always been an intensely quiet guy but it's even worse now that he's slowly losing his hearing.

i see my pops nearly every day, so it's not like we need to keep in touch by phone. i see my mom pretty much every weekend, and usually talk on the phone at least once during the week.

1x - 2x / week, but that's also because my sister and her husband still live with them, so there is a lot of family-stuff ever a-brewing.

Probably at least one of them about once a week.

now it is like every day (weeding shit)

I realize you meant something else, but the image of Abbott's parents calling up to complain about dandelions makes me happy.

"DAMN PUFF BALLS ARE EVERYWHERE HELP US ABBOTT."

"Uh, no."

cuet

We do talk about cheat grass an awful lot. And veg garden shit.

too funny

"Remember that time you bought a goat, mom, to eat all the cheat grass on your 1.5 acre lot? BAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA."
"You bring that up every other time you talk to us. It's not our fault the goat didn't eat enough."

i also talk abt gardening with my mom but only b/c she has a garden (i do not)

2-3x per week, which is way more often than most people in my immediate circle of acquaintances. we text as well, but usually only about sporting events.

^^family

i talk with her once or twice a week, sometimes talk for like an hour! random stuff, depending, it is nice :) seems 50/50 with who calls whom

every few months with my dad, he usually calls me. dude is passive-aggressive communicator but whatever, he is usually just fine on the phone, i mean dude is my dad & at this point i find his communications skills combined with my weirdass concept of time kind of hilarious

my mom (a concert cellist, flautist, and organist) will once in a while play music over the telephone for me, if she is particularly proud of a piece she has mastered.

WOW jealous

the weird thing maybe is that even when i didn't live across the country i still talked with them at pretty much the same rate
xpost

my mom plays piano over the phone for me all the time! it is pretty great! she's been on an oscar peterson kick

what?? y'all have fun parents ;)

also, i do not talk to my father much in person: he grows distinctly uncomfortable with conversation, and makes excuses ('i've got things! to do!') but on the phone we are like BFF

mom usually calls me once a week or so, or if i call her, my dad will answer her phone. i talk to him a lot more because he loves to gchat.

I chat with them both evenly. Really all depends on who picks up the phone!

Probably more than most people. But more than usual if someone has broken my heart.

My mom spent 20 minutes telling me about why she liked The Fisher King last night.

my dad is retiring soon, and my mom is freaking out about it: she is nowhere near ready, and worried my dad will become insufferable choredoer and putterer, like his father before him. moreover, he does not have many hobbies, and cannot see to read or watch t.v., so there is a great question of exactly what it is he will be doing. we have had many conversations about this recently.

Probably more than most people. But more than usual if someone has broken my heart.

-- the pinefox, Wednesday, June 4, 2008 11:07 AM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Link

i never ever ever talk to parents about my relationships.

Dad calls about every other day to tell me there's a thunderstorm watch out for our county or that a special on Paul McCartney is on A&E (these latter comments were hilarious back when I didn't have cable.) He'll also call if he thinks I might know one of the latest obituaries, especially if they're close to my age or from my hometown.

I talk to my mother maybe once every two or three weeks.

i have spent ages on the phone with my mom post-break-ups sigh
xp

can i swap with some of you ?
you call mine, and i'll call yours.
these folks sound great.
and you'll then understand why i never use my surname.

We talk 2-3 times a week, usually. More with my mom than my dad because he travels for work pretty frequently, but when they're both around it breaks down more or less evenly. I call them a lot when I'm riding the bus home from work and they call me mostly on weekends. We talk about pretty much whatever's on our minds. Lately it has been about mom's book project and garden and dad's seemingly endless professional life and travels.

my mom is the first person i call for any medical advice

she's not a doctor or a nurse or anything but she's had 7 kids and has seen it ALL

I talk to my parents at least every other day but it often ends up being daily. This is not necessarily a good thing.

as long as you get along!

2-3 times a week I guess. Now that I don't live at home I realise how well I get along with my parents, it's truly bizarre. My dad rings up and is a lot more open and interested than he would be if I'd been sitting in the same room when I lived at home.

Also text them and email them sometimes. Lauren otm about sporting events. Main other time for texts is holidays, for me or them.

Pretty much every day. About all kinds of random shit. I communicate with so many people via email, facebook, text message, here, etc that it's nice to have someone to actually TALK to. Longer phone calls when they're at their home in Spain, but I still check in nearly every day when they're in this country as well.

I used to call my mom for recipes, but now she calls me. But she calls with impossible questions like "what do you put in a stir-fry?"

A couple of times a week. Goes both ways, sometimes I call them & sometimes they ring me up. And I visit them every other week at least. Lately more often, actually.

i never ever ever talk to parents about my relationships.

words to live by

i think i talked to them sometime before thanksgiving.

Y'know, as much as I don't want to uh talk about my relationship (w my parents) I still would like to think that my daughters will keep on talking with me long after they have left the house. It'd freak me the fuck out if they didn't. :-(

me too.
hence why my style of parenting is very different to my own upbringing.
no doubt i'm messing it up, but i'm trying, cos like you stevie, i really want to be a part of my kids lives for as long as possible.

I sort of talk relationship stuff with my mum, but she pulls the whole "your generation is different from my generation" thing too often for me to get her to talk to me as me and not as a representative of my generation.

Skype a few times a week, normally. Although the last couple of weeks I've been really bad about calling and returning emails, to the point that I got an email titled "unconscious in a ditch?" (I was distracted by a guy, which is unrelated to them so it's unfair and irrational that this made me unwilling to call home. I can't blame it on their parenting style, though!)

Both dead, so never.

That was a pointless post wasn't it?

my dad rarely, my mother about 3-4 times a week

xp No, a sad one actually. :-(

i talk to my mom exactly once a week for 1-2 hours. it used to be more like evey second day when she worked from home but job changes and time differences rule out weekdays now. makes me sad sometimes.

awww. 1-2 hours is a while! that's nice.

wow... i average about once every 6 weeks. i always call them. if my mum needs to ask me something or remind me about something, she'll text me. if i haven't called after about 8-10 weeks i'll get a text: 'ARE YOU STILL BREATHING'. recently mum has gotten into emailing, so i get bi-weekly notes, and i've just introduced her to the joys of gchat ('OMG WOW WE'RE REALLY TALKING YOU CAN SEE WHAT I'M TYPING RIGHTAWAY??). since i'm heading overseas, i've also hooked them up with skype - the webcam freaked them out when we tested it the other night.

i don't like talking relationship stuff with my parents but i usually run out of things to say in about 5mins so i end up telling them all kinds of stuff i don't mean to, just to fill the silence :/

i totally do that too

the vest sweater wearer, action figurine package tearer, the novelty tie rocker, self inflicted cock blocker, the mayonaise spreader, the watch french flick double header, the wannabe big thinker, soy milk drinker, the sandal on the foot guy, the 'gee they seem scary' dont even look guy, the shook guy, the 'will people think im smart' if I say I read this book guy, the police teller, the hair geller, the inaccurately described record seller, the scented candle smeller, the fruit of the loom appologist, the amateur psyhcologist, the self apointed this is why they flopped dead career pathologist, the im trying real hard but im as cool as an ologist, the side parting comber, the small boner, the frequent mom phoner, the friday night home aloner, the girl not haver, the sock stabber, the recycled paper bagger, the mr send cheap cheese and wine hamper

My mom about twice a week; my dad once a week before he died in December. Still have not taken number out of phone.

holy shit if aw typed that shit up himself he is a golden god in my eyes no matter how fucking much he annoys me from here on out

I usually speak to mum once a week or once a fortnight on the weekends, just to catch up, and sometimes a quick chat to dad if mum's not home and he's bored and wants to catch up/lecture me on my finances. Mum gets and gives all the whinging and health issues and nags me to quit smoking.

My bf has an awesome dad who he speaks to every week or so on the phone now he'smoved here from the west coast. His dad's a guitarist and guitar/amp repairer, and they'll talk about musical ideas, and then his dad will record himself playing a Shadows song or classical piece on his acoustic and email it to Rob as an mp3 so he can work it out. It is so adorable.

i hate it.
too fucking intense and serious to go into here, but lets just say i'm not close emotionally to my parents, despite the fact they probably think we are.

This sums me up, too, especially those last few words.

i only talk to my mom about once a month. sometimes less often. part of the problem being that she doesn't actually listen to anything I say, so talking to her is basically listening to a one-sided conversation about people I don't know and will never meet who are dying.

my wife talks to her mom twice a day! it's her mom that does the calling

lets just say i'm not close emotionally to my parents, despite the fact they probably think we are.

i hope my kid never thinks this way about me

aww ;) i'm sure your kid won't! i would hate for my kid to feel like that too

{robably about once a month I call my mom about some problem, expect her to be my therapist, and then leave the conversation all pissed that she's acting like my therapist instead of my mom.

Hahaha... I laugh because oh god. this.

I send them a text every month or so.

i hope my kid never thinks this way about me

me too. me too.
doing my best to make sure of it, but who knows how the little folks will turn out.

Em calls her mum every night, almost without fail.

I don't think I'd ever call my parents without prompting unless I had something super specific to ask them. I hate using the phone in general, though.

talk to my mom >once a week. i'm grateful that we have gotten closer in the past couple of years. i haven't talked to my dad in over a year, and didn't even acknowledge his birthday a couple days ago. i would say that makes me a horrible person, but i'm really not. i love him, to be sure, but communicating with him is argh. i need to sort that out.

I talk to my mother maybe once every three or four weeks. My partner talks to his mother absolutely every single day without fail, but only since his sister/her daughter died two years ago. The calls always start with "Morning", regardless of the time of day, and they always end with "Love you" from both parties. It's lovely. But I couldn't do it with my mother.

Neither could I. It'd be incest.

Not with your mum, obviously. With my mum.

if there's any truth to "good" things coming out of "bad" things, then I guess I participate in that. one of my brothers died prematurely, and so i think in part that drew our family closer together. the fact of his death sucks, obviously, but, i've come to value life more, if anything...

i'm sorry dell. but yes these things have to have their upsides or else we'd go crazy. my boyfriend talks to his mom frequently and they're so cute it makes me gag. she's also like the nicest mom you could ever want. oh other people's mothers...

i think i talk to my bf's mum more than i talk to my own.

Dad = on my birthday when he remembers it
Mum = phones me up and talks to me about her neighbours and other people i don't know.

mum "ooh elsie fell ove the other day and bruised her hip"
me "who?"
mum "you know, elsie who lives down the street"
me "never heard of her"
mum "oh, anyway, she fell over and etc...

hahahahaha

I go through that with every call to my mother too, nog_toodwin.

She's a teacher, so she's always talking about teenagers who weren't even born when I left town. "You don't know Randy Harper? He's Steve Haper's son."

About once a week or once every couple of weeks. My parents are only a bus ride away and we consequently have this really half-arsed attitude to staying in touch. I very rarely think 'ooh must phone my mum'. I'll occasionally text my dad for football-related things, never my mum (mostly because she writes in full-on txtspk and it really weirds me out).

Although occasionally my mum will call me three or four times in one afternoon, usually when she has just one more thing she forgot to ask me.

i speak to my olds about once every 4 - 6 weeks, they live a long way away from me. I suppose it should be a bit more regular, I know my brother speaks to them weekly and he lives even further away. But I've never been in the habit of talking to them much, and I don't like the phone. I went to boarding school when I was 12 and mum and dad rationed telephone calls to once a fortnight to 'make me more independent', with all good intentions. I guess it did make me independent, but also distant - 20 years later I feel I hardly know them and would probably get a lot more value from speaking to my friends on the phone.

they always end with "Love you" from both parties. It's lovely. But I couldn't do it with my mother. Neither could I. It'd be incest.

I end all calls with my parents this way too and my husband thinks it's so strange. He never says I love you to his parents whereas I can't imagine not saying it!

I work with my parents.

i talk to my dad on the phone every couple of days. didn't speak with my mum at all for three years before she died.

Every three days on average. If it's been that long and they haven't called, then I will. I've only recently started saying "I love you too" to my dad (I'm more taciturn than the old man).

I end all calls with my parents this way too and my husband thinks it's so strange. He never says I love you to his parents whereas I can't imagine not saying it!

-- ENBB, Thursday, June 5, 2008 10:00 AM (39 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

Yeah me too. The running joke from my roommates is this sarcastic "haa haa, you love your mo-om!" grade school taunt. I can't tell if I think it's funny anymore.

But to andswer the thread question, not nearly often enough. I have some strange problem with social anxiety on the phone and it's always a small trial to pick it up and just start dialing. It gets complicated because I don't drive and there are times where I absolutely need to ask someone for a ride, maybe to work, maybe to run some errands I can't on a bicycle, and I just wind up staring at the phone until I psych myself into it. Oh and don't even ask about calling girls...!

Hey so I can't spell.

Love means never having to say it to girls.

lets just say i'm not close emotionally to my parents, despite the fact they probably think we are.

same. there's a reason i moved halfway across the continent. i'm pretty sure the feeling is mutual though.