Elderly parents and mobile phones - getting them to use or at least call

ViolaLass

mumps wrote: »

Really, he doesn't seem keen on anything that has been suggested. He has been quite rude at times, I think it was a post of mamans and calling another post pathetic. Moans about dad not phoning his mobile and then moans that he phoned him on his mobile 20 times and when he couldn't get him phoned on the home phone. Poor old man can't do right can he? My sympathies are with his dad.

I've seen no indication that the father is calling the OP's mobile.

If my father were ringing and ringing of an evening and waking my young child up over a non-emergency, I would get quite ratty too.

Calling Errata's post 'pathetic' clearly came from frustration. I don't know why Errata decided that only those earning £50k plus are allowed to answer their phones at work. I've never earned that much but have always been able to take short, important calls.

mumps

[quote=[Deleted User];68441566]I remember this thread from a few years ago. Unfortunately, Dad has got worse and worse.

At the moment, if he gets an idea in his head that I promised to ring him or for whatever reason he gets an idea that he needs to speak to me he will ring no matter what time of the day it is.

I've told him and told him not to call the house if he can help it if its late because it wakes the baby. If its important fair enough, but it rarely is. I've told him to call my mobile, if I dont answer leave a message and I'll call him back, maybe next day.

I've also told him to phone me on my mobile in the day if he wants. But he won't. Says he doesnt want to get in trouble with work. I run my own IT company, and do consultancy work so no-ones going to bat an eyelid (its not like being on the till at tesco or something!). But he doesnt listen.

Yesterday he called the home phone at midnight. Nuts. Didn't really want anything but had got the idea in his head that something must be wrong. He'd rung my mobile (which was upstairs) about 20 times. All because he was sure I'd said I'd ring him. I didn't.
Thing is if we'd all been in a car crash what can he do?

I've tried and tried to speak to him about it. I just dont understand why he gets into a state and has to speak to me no matter what. Last night I can imagine him sitting there calling me and calling me, then finally panicking, getting an idea in his head and ringing me at midnight.[/QUOTE]

This was the quote I was referring to.

mumps

ViolaLass wrote: »

I've seen no indication that the father is calling the OP's mobile.

If my father were ringing and ringing of an evening and waking my young child up over a non-emergency, I would get quite ratty too.

Calling Errata's post 'pathetic' clearly came from frustration. I don't know why Errata decided that only those earning £50k plus are allowed to answer their phones at work. I've never earned that much but have always been able to take short, important calls.

Well there was no need to be rude, Errata wasn't. I think you will agree that my post above does indicate that the father did ring his mobile 20 times and then phoned the house.

ViolaLass

mumps wrote: »

I think you will agree that my post above does indicate that the father did ring his mobile 20 times and then phoned the house.

Yes, I hadn't remembered that. It was still at midnight, with a young baby in the house, for a non-emergency. I'd get ratty too.

mumps

ViolaLass wrote: »

Yes, I hadn't remembered that. It was still at midnight, with a young baby in the house, for a non-emergency. I'd get ratty too.

But it was after 20 calls. If he has been repeatedly told that he should phone the mobile and it will be answered then I suppose he was getting worried.
I never understand the thing about phoning and waking kids up, I mean little ones are in bed at what? 7pm, so do people really have silence and no contact from 7 pm every night? My kids just had to sleep through it and if it woke them they had to settle again. Mind you there is a 20 year age gap between my eldest and youngest so I don't think I could have done that for the best part of 30 years, probably isn't as long for most people. My youngest two were babies/toddlers with teenagers in the house so they had to get used to noise.

gettingtheresometime

I would argue that the salary a person earns is irrelevant to whether a person can take personal calls at work - I would say its more down to the attitude of the line manager.

From the sounds of it I can't see why the OP doesn't get a hands free kit and phones his dad on his way home.

mumps

gettingtheresometime wrote: »

I would argue that the salary a person earns is irrelevant to whether a person can take personal calls at work - I would say its more down to the attitude of the line manager.

From the sounds of it I can't see why the OP doesn't get a hands free kit and phones his dad on his way home.

I suggested the handsfree calls on the way home, no reply from OP. I thought it would be an ideal way to have a chat with dad in time that is normally not very useful.

gettingtheresometime

mumps wrote: »

I suggested the handsfree calls on the way home, no reply from OP. I thought it would be an ideal way to have a chat with dad in time that is normally not very useful.

That's usually when my sister phones my mum - and as my travel time will increase from next week that's exactly what I plan to get so that I can ring her on the way home.

ciderwithrosie_2

Hmmm, yes my parents are the same about mobile phones. My mum has one, but it's usually switched off and kept in a sandwich bag in her handbag! She says 'oh I only keep it to use in an emergency' - yes, I'm pleased you've got one for that reason but what if I'm the one with the emergency and need to get hold of you and you're not at home? Also, if I don't answer my home phone or mobile (because I didn't get to it quick enough or I didn't hear it) she will leave a message all worried saying 'where are you?' I've told her it costs me money to retrieve a voicemail and she doesn't need to do it because I regularly check to see if I've had any missed calls/texts and get back to her asap.

The one that made me scratch my head though, was we bought them a laptop and they eventually got set up with broadband and started using email. However, for a while they were adamant they could only email people in their village, if they tried to email people outside the village they just bounced back as undeliverable!

Savvy_Sue

I can see reasons NOT to make phone calls even hands free while driving, there is evidence that you don't give your full attention to the road, even during an inconsequential conversation. However if I was regularly getting phone calls at inconvenient times I'd do my best to circumvent that, and if that meant finding time to call myself then that is what I would do.

One of my siblings often phones me while walking the dog. Our calls are sprinkled with "Hey Dog's Name, here, come here, HERE, good boy" and so on, and it's often difficult to hear her if it's windy. But if that's the time when she has time to call me, that's OK!