There are so many instances where my parents’ response to something simple is off. I’m starting to get embarrassed about writing about them.  However, not embarrassed enough to stop writing – your comments and notes make this journey easier. Thank you.

When I was trying to reach my parents at their retirement home, their phone is continuously busy. If you have ever called my mom, you will know that a two-minute call is laborious for her, so I know after getting the signal over a period of an hour that they must not have put it back on the cradle. I called the front desk of the retirement community and they sent security to their door—no one is home.

When I check my home phone, I have a message from them and confirm that they didn’t hang up after they called. I leave a message for them at their townhouse that they left the phone off the hook at their other place.

Later that night I got a message from my dad—“Can you call us back so we can see if our phone is still off the hook?”

I want to treat others as I’d like them to treat me. I’d like to know if I did that, but giving that information to my parents at this point is just not helpful. It caused them to drive back to the retirement community at night and call me, not really understanding what the problem was or how to easily fix it. Conflicted.