Semi light-hearted. But only a bit as I'm pregnant and hormonal and grumpy and not feeling like being light-hearted 😒 <---this is me at the moment. I also am being unreasonable. But I don't care. I live abroad and I don't like video calls at the best of times. I don't know why. I just think it's extremely awkward and unnecessary to sort of look at each others faces while you're just sitting there talking. Is the video actually necessary? I have nothing to show you. It's just my face at an unflattering angle, and all I can see is yours looking the same. I normally phone my dad, without the video, as he is a grump too (guess it runs in the family!) and feels the same. With my best friends, we are in a group chat and talk a lot on that so don't feel the need for video calls and the group chat works for us. DHs family, on the other hand, call almost every day - a minimum, I'd say, of about 5 times a week but it's often much more than this) and I'm starting to find it a bit invasive. One minute I'm sat on the sofa in my underwear and a tshirt, no make up on (first things I do when I step in from work at the moment is make up and clothes off! It's boiling hot where I live at the moment and not ideal weather for being a pregnant grump). The next minute there's a bloody video call going on and a camera being shoved into my face by DH saying "Say hii!" No. I don't want to say hi. I'm half naked. I have no make up on and my hair scraped back and look like a slug. I don't want to have to say hi to literally 5 or 6 people (the whole family with gather round for these calls) considering I can't understand their language and I find it really awkward sort of smiling and waving at the camera over and over again while they say things about me to DH. They're SO lovely, don't get me wrong. This is all me being a grump, I know that. But it's started to give me the rage! I've started telling DH to just pretend I'm not here and go into another room to take the call because if they see me I'll have to go onscreen and do the smiling, waving, awkwardness and the thing that makes me feel most uncomfortable is sort of being inspected? When you're pregnant people always want to have a good look at you from all angles to see how much weight you've put on, how big your bump is, etc, and it makes me furious for some reason. (Again, IABU, I know. Hormones!) DH keep saying I'm being really unreasonable and should come on the call but I don't even speak to my own family this much, I never video call them because I can't stand video calls, so why do I have to come onto his family video calls when I can't even understand and I feel really uncomfortable? Is it unreasonable to want to be able to be a grumpy pregnant slob without having a video camera stuck in your face and 5 or 6 witnesses to what you'd like to be kind of private down time? I wouldn't mind so much but these calls go on for over an hour, often more than two hours, so even if DH pretends I'm not there, I can't even talk to him or ask for his help with the kids or anything because I'm pretending not to be there. I just have to silently slope around the house avoiding the camera angle until he's done. We both work and we don't have much time together in the evenings so I also kind of resent our downtime/family time being taken over by constant video calls. DH gets much more time at home than I do and could easily speak to them when I'm not here but he's so laid back, nothing irrationally bothers him like video calls irrationally bother me, and so I feel like he doesn't really understand! I know I'm being unreasonable, but I'm hormonal and have no intention of stopping! I just wondered if anyone else has this irrational hatred of video calls or of having the camera shoved in your face when you're not expecting it or not actually willing to be on camera? (Some of DHs family and friends, when we visit, will take video calls from their friends or relatives while we are on a trip or at dinner or something and with no warning they'll shove the camera into your face to insist you say hi and make awkward small talk with the total stranger on the screen. Oh it is the worst. I just thought I'd add that in as a grumble while I'm grumbling because this is my biggest pet peeve of all! Why would I want to say hi to this total stranger? And now that I've said hi, WHY AREN'T YOU REMOVING THIS PHONE FROM MY FACE? I HAVE NOTHING ELSE TO SAY!!!!) I think this might be a cultural thing as it happens all. The. Time when we're there. * Shudders *