Communication breakdowns?
Thursday, September 10th, 2026
How do you communicate with your adult children? I mean in a technical sense (phone, text, old-fashioned letters, kid lives in the basement and constantly hits the ceiling with their cudgel to demand more food). There are emotional aspects to all of these things but I’m only partially goin’ there tonight.
I’ve been musing on this since blahggy friend Margaret posted about her recent trip to Ireland and the different styles of communication with folks on the tour with their grown-up kids back in the states. I’m not here to judge, just to report my own “policies”, which are subject to change, make no mistake.
My daughters and I are most comfortable with texting. If there’s a reason to get on the phone, it’s usually because the text thread is getting complicatedly intertwined and somebody texts something like, “can we just talk on the phone?” I almost never call one of my daughters without a text to ask when is a good time? I mean, are you in a meeting (or in the bathroom)? I have taken calls in the damn bathroom but never on the terlet. I have heard the GG peeing in bathroom and flushing while talking on the phone. In his defense, he was talking to his ID twin and I am sure they have been peeing together all their lives.
Phone calls were fun when I was a little kid. Is it for me? Not usually until I met Laurie Pingatore and Helen Boult and they would call me. But I remember when people *ran* to get the phone. Then there were the years of “[sigh] is Bad Boyfriend (BadBF) ever gonna call me again?” He was actually pretty damn brave about calling me when I look back on it given that it might well be that my DAD might answer the phone. BadBF knew my dad was worried that he might get me pregnant but he called *anyway*. Dad did sometimes answer the phone. I didn’t get pregnant. I lost BadBF for that but I knew better.
I could probably write a book about my life through telephone technology but I’ll stop there for now. I figgered out early in my kids’ college careers that they didn’t need me to instant message or text them constantly. I figured out that was a GOOD thing. It meant they were doing well (even on *those* days) and me keeping outta the way was the best thing.






















