105 Ways to Give a Book

Calling Dad

Thanks for the responses to yesterday’s question about calling your mother — and I’d still love to hear from you if you didn’t get a chance to comment. I’m finding the answers very interesting, with my favorite one coming in via Facebook: “Often enough to keep her happy, but infrequently enough to keep me sane.”

A few people mentioned calling or talking to their fathers, and it made we wonder if it is an entirely different thing with dads. See, while I feel obligated to talk to my mother every week and apologize if I don’t, I never have the same sense about my father. They are divorced, so the calls are separate entities and completely different. I might talk to Dad a couple times a week for ten minutes, or maybe a thirty-minute conversation on a weekend. It’s happened that we haven’t talked for a couple of weeks and will spend an hour on the phone catching up. He calls me more, but since I can’t always talk, I call him back much of the time. It’s a very organic thing, without any guilt, obligation, or specific time investment. How about for you?

Like yesterday, I’m keeping the reading light here so that you can give your attention to the wonders of the Share a Story — Shape a Future blog tour. And while my questions may not be book-related, think of what they may add as writing prompts and character development.

7 comments:

Peaceful Reader said...

Oh, this question makes me a wee bit sad as I loved to talk to my dad on the phone and he died a few years back. My parents were divorced also so calling was separate and that was good. My mom calls me almost everyday sometimes for nothing at all and, while I appreciate her calls, I am often just the listener as she goes on and on about what ever has her excited at the moment! She used to drive me nuts with this but now I am a more appreciative-I'll miss it later.

Magpie said...

i used to call my mother regularly, though not on a schedule, unless i was pissed off at her. she NEVER called me. i think she thought of it as a long distance call (it wasn't).

my father? i talk to him intermittently - sometimes a lot, like several times a week, and then not for a month. i never know where he is - he travels all the time.

tanita✿davis said...

Uh, I fear I am the exception. I've never phoned my father in my life. I probably never will. When I'm on the phone with Mom, occasionally he'll walk by and yell hello. That's pretty much it for us.

If something happened to Mom... I don't think that would change, sadly. It is what it is. I remind myself of this pretty much weekly, when I call home...

The1stdaughter said...

I do actually talk with my dad more than I do my mother. It is like you said though, almost entirely guilt free. I can call him as often or as little as possible and he's still happy to hear from me and there's no expectation that I should call a certain number of times or have something specific to say. Much more relaxed.

Abby said...

My parents are together, so usually when I call (or visit) I talk to (or see) them both. Actually, if I need to call and talk to them I'm more likely to call my dad because they only have cell phones now and my dad can usually get to his faster. My mom usually can't get to it in time, so I have to call and let it ring and then she calls me back or I immediately call her back. :)

Jennie said...

My parents are together and living, and when I call, they'll both pick up different extensions so I actually talk to them at the same time.

That said, I talk to my dad more often. They're both busy people but for some reason, I'm more likely to catch it when my mom's not home, rather than my dad not being home.

Now my sister, that's a whole different story. If Guinness had a record for longest game of phone tag, we'd hold it.

Terry Doherty said...

Funny, I think I talked to my mom more when they lived further away. Sunday calls were a ritual. Now we can go two weeks without calling or seeing each other.

There's a lot going on healthwise in our family, too, and now I'm less anxious to pick up the phone ... sometimes I'm just not ready for the news.