Parents

Last week my parents celebrated their anniversary. A few years ago they celebrated their fiftieth, so this year it was not considered a big deal. My parents do not like a big deal anyway.

For instance, they stopped celebrating Christmas about ten or fifteen years ago. I still do not understand why. They simply told my siblings and me not to visit for Christmas. They were not going to put up a tree or dress up the house at all. They were not celebrating Christmas and we were not to come.

Needless to say, we were all dumbfounded. One year, my siblings came to our house to celebrate the holidays. It was fun, but we never did it again. We were all too busy.

Whenever I try to call my parents, my mother insists on hanging up and calling us back. They live about fifty miles from our home. It no longer is considered long distance, considering the more competitive phone industry of the twenty-first century. Still, she asks to call us back so the call in on her dime and not ours. I probably make more money than they do now, but still she asks.

Because they downplay holidays, etc., I have gotten into the habit of sending e-cards on major holidays and remembrances. On their anniversary, I sent an e-card. That night, I saw that it came back as undelivered. The next day I sent an email, one that was long with lots of detail, and it came back undelivered.

Then I started to think about when the last time it was that I heard from my parents. It is not unusual to go a week or two without hearing from them. There is only so much news.

I decided to call. Mom did the “call back” dance and then I explained that I was concerned that they were all right. My mother told me not to worry. She said it happens all the time and to just keep sending the email.

I work for a top fifty corporation. I send out emails everyday to people I know and lots who I have never met and likely will never meet. I write blogs each day and frequently correspond through email at home with credit card companies (don’t ask) and others. I never get “undeliverable” email.

My mother said that she likely received such a message trying to email me. Fine. I am no longer going to battle to figure out the problem. Mom says there is no problem. That is how it is.

So, we talked about the kids and what they did on their anniversary (nothing). I talked a but about my interest in podcasting. I explained how I like to listen on the drive to work. “You probably shouldn’t do that,” she says to me.

“What? It is no different than listening to the radio.”

“If you listen to the radio you may sing along with a song, but if you are listening to things like that (“Manager Tools”, Barack Obama, “Wait, wait…Don’t Tell Me”, etc.), you are probably not concentrating on your driving as you should.”

Sigh. I am in my mid-forties and my mid-seventies mother is telling me what I can listen to in my car while driving.

As a parent, you never stop worrying. As a child, you never really grow up.

I love my parents. I’m going to have to see them one of these weekends. First I have to check the schedule to avoid a holiday.

Thank you for reading. We will talk again soon.