MomTracker

[featherynscale]

Time of call: 33 minutes, 17 seconds.
Questions about love life: 7*.
New tactics introduced: "Do your friends ever try to set you up with anybody?" "Do your roommates work with anybody you'd want to date?"
Pleas for grandchildren: 1.
Response to denial re grandchildren: "Oh, everybody says that until they find Mr. Right."
Implications that I'm wasting my life: 3.
Questions about job: 0**.

* - Record High.
** - Record Low.

Comments

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

She's a special kind of person, your mother.

[kittenpants.livejournal.com]

So's yours. 33 minutes. Damn. Does she even bother with the southern facade of the oh-so-casual inquiry, or is this custom optional for blood-relatives?

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

She typically begins with casual inquiry and moves from there. By the time it moves from dating to grandchildren, the masks are off and the talons are out, though.

I told her if she wanted grandchildren, I was afraid she was going to have to adopt another child. This was apparently offensive in some way.

Re: dating, I told her that everyone I was interested in already belonged to someone else, which seemed both accurate and diplomatic, but was also apparently offensive in some way.

Ah well. Disappointment to the family, I am.

It's all relative.

[saffronhare.livejournal.com]

Let's see, an average call with my mother lately (please note that my mother calls me at least 3 times/week because I am her Favorite right now):

~ lasts approximately 17 minutes (with "well, I should probably let you get back to work now" spoken at least 3 times)
~ includes a summary of 2 or more doctor's appointments and medical conditions (hers and/or my father's)
~ informs me of a relative who is ill or dying or on display at a wake tonight
~ shares a countdown of how many days until she's visiting (15 and counting), and a confirmation that 1) I know she's renting a car so I don't have to pick her up and 2) I'm taking Friday off work so we can shop together (whee!)
~ asks if I'm excited about going to Disney in April
~ asks at least once when Andrew will be done with school and what he'll be doing with his degree
~ allows me to hear her dog whining for a biscuit
~ confides how happy she is that she doesn't have to work outside the home
~ laments that I "do too much"

Re: It's all relative.

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

Funny. My mother laments that I don't do enough. I do get the full family illness report, as well as the state of the pets' health and behavior, but, as I don't actually see said family or pets much, that's not too objectionable.

She did throw in a new one this time: volunteerism. "Do you do any volunteer work?" (Note: Mom disapproves of UUism, and will not openly acknowledge my religion, even though she couldn't possibly be unaware of it, so I try to remember not to mention the church.) I told her that I was still doing some community theater and that sort of thing, and behold: there was disapproval, and I was admonished to get more involved in things that involved feeding people or getting them clothes.

Fun, games.

Re: It's all relative.

[kittenpants.livejournal.com]

You mean you're happily unmarried, childless, AND you haven't ended world poverty?

One day, you're just going to snap and tell her all the things you DO in a given week, in excruciating detail.

Re: It's all relative.

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

That option gets more compelling every day. And it's inevitable. In fact, here's the really great part: Mom and Dad want to come visit over the summer.

Won't That Be Fun?(tm)

Re: It's all relative.

[zylch.livejournal.com]

Wow... average call from my mother lasts maybe half an hour, but only happens once every several months. Granted, it helps that I didn't tell them my Lawrence phone number until three months after I'd gotten it. Email too is blessedly rare, along the lines of "Just wondering if you're still alive -- haven't heard from you in a few months." or "We're going somewhere; here are travel dates and contact info." My presence in Kansas is causing a distubing upward trend in these stats, however.

Re: It's all relative.

[kcwitch.livejournal.com]

my mother's calls are generally like that only a lot of time it's
-are you sitting down? some unknown relative is dying.
-you remember such and such? sure you do you used to hang out with them when you was two.