The question posted about frequency of communication with parents got me wondering about ages of progenitors and methods of communication. How many of us forego phone calls, letters, or face to face visits with parents or even grandparents in favor of less traditional methods of communication - for example: texts, ims, facebook, or even Skype? And, for reference, how old are you and those parents, grandparents, or even great-grands?
For me, my mom and I phone frequently, text seldom - maybe once per month, and keep up via Facebook - kids’ concerts and accomplishments, work schedules, that sort of thing. Similar for my husband and his mother. (Mr. Matata and I are both 42, and our moms are 63 and 61.) Neither his dad nor stepdad, nor my stepdad, use anything more technological than a simple cell phone, no texts - ages range from 61 to 70. Each of us has one living grandparent, each 90-ish, and neither considers a cell phone practical: they each have a corded phone on a land line.
Both of our moms use skype to stay in touch with our far-flung relatives, all the dads seem to think that skype is some sort of newfangled bovine parasite. (And, fwiw, dad and both stepdads have more formal education than either of our moms.)
I call my mom, but I would text her more often if she had an unlimited texting plan and she lived in an area where she got reception all the time. We also use facebook all the time since it seems to be the only reliable way for me and my brothers to also keep in contact. My dad is technologically inept, (he isn’t afraid of technology he just has no use for it). My dad’s wife, however, keeps trying to get me to sign up with Skype and use a webcam. Since I hate her guts I really don’t want to talk to her on it
Mom (70): From Spain I phone, from abroad I skype.
Furthermore, Mom (who’s cheap enough to make Scrooge McDuck look like a generous soul) learned to use computers so I’d be able to skype her - being able to call her computer-to-computer means that she gets to “iron my ear” for over one hour, while if it was on the phone she’d be feeling guilty after ten minutes. That hour+ means I may even be able to glean some actual information. Skype also has the advantage that I can use it with a long cable and move around, and it’s hands-free… and Mom’s long speeches mean I can even mute the mike, put her on speakers and go to the bathroom or for a drink - she doesn’t realize it. Evidently no webcam.
The Bros (in their 30s): Littlebro, mostly by email. Middlebro, mostly by phone or SMS since he doesn’t read email. If I want M to read an email, I send it to both and ask L to tell M.
Grandma (96): heck no. She’s been deaf as a wall for years, unable to pay attention since I can remember (I suspect that it isn’t all selfishness like Mom thinks, there’s an ADD factor), any conversation with her is along the lines of “how are you?” “it is raining! Why is it raining? It shouldn’t be raining!”
There is just my mother-75, brother-48 & father-78. I’m 49.
I have no cellphone, Facebook, or Twitter.
My mother has no computer.
I talk to my mother ever 4-5 days on the phone. I have not seen her in person in over 10 years.
My brother and I do not talk to each other. He didn’t even return my call when our mother was in the hospital, (He lives just a few miles from her, I’m about 400 miles from her).
I email my father infrequently (Easter and Christmas most recently), I have not talked to him on the phone in years (Parents have been divorce for over 48 years).
Nether my brother or I have any children. There are a couple of aunts & some distance cousins, but I have either never had any contact with them or it’s been 30+ years since I last heard from them.
I used to mail out postcards & greeting cards every month or so. I had to stop because it was becoming too expensive, and almost no one replied in kind.
My parents (who are in their 60s) and my grandmother (who is about 86) use email, so email is my preferred method of communication. Unfortunately, my mother still insists on weekly phone calls.
I communicate with my mom (80-something), my kids, grandkids, siblings, cousins, nieces and nephews and great nieces and nephews mostly via Facebook and occasional e-mails. Phoning between the U.S. and Hungary is expensive and we’re not really phone people anyway, so we don’t even use Skype with the others who have it.
My parents and I e-mail a couple of times a week and we see each other every couple months or so. Which is kind of pathetic because we only live 25 minutes apart. We aren’t really phone people, and phone calls almost invariably mean something is wrong. They both have Facebook but don’t use it.
My brother and I text occasionally, but we don’t really communicate all that much and I see him maybe once or twice a year. Again, phone calls mean something’s wrong.
My mother, who’s 59 (I think) loves to text. She has some fancy phone with the little qwerty keyboard on it, and doesn’t understand that it takes me forever to text back in the kind of detail she’d like. So I usually give a ring when the texts start coming in.
She’s still with my father, and I’ll occasionally just drop in if I’m in their neighborhood for a drink, a chat, play on their pianos, and maybe watch some Jeopardy! or a movie with them.
I call/ drop in at my parents. I text my brother when I remember, or email/facebook my sister in law and tell her to tell my brother to read it. I visit my grandmother> I email my ex mother in law, and she keeps bugging me to sign up to Skype, I just haven’t yet, but I should since my son is old enough now to contact her that way.
Dad emails me horrible right wing emails that I have learned to delete before I read, because I can respect him better if I don’t read them. When he and mom are out of town they text/email. In town he doesn’t keep his cell on.
I’m in Tokyo. My younger sister is in Texas and we mostly communicate via Yahoo Messenger on a weekly basis. My parents don’t use e-mail or computers much. My mother calls me every 2-3 weeks. During that conversation, I spent about 20 minutes with mom and 5 minutes with dad. Then the call ends. After the disasters in Japan, my mother would call me every other day.
I (30) call my sister (28), parents (55) and Grandma (84) on the phone or I visit them. Sometimes my mother and I use email. They all have cell phones but only my sister and I know how to text.
