To have been abrupt with this family member?

[Eur]

She is never off the phone.

I have multiple young DC one of which is disabled and I'm a carer for. I also work PT which might not seem like much but in conjunction with my caring duties, pre-schooler, 10mo baby and running the house it means I have very little free time.

She'll call me 3-4 times per day for no reason other than to chat about the most mundane of things like what I'm having for dinner and what her plans are for the day. I tell her to just text me and I'll get back to her when I can, she doesn't text as she doesn't like to so she just keeps calling and clogging up my voicemail box with completely pointless crap. Every call I don't answer results in yet another voicemail. I can see she has left one whilst I've been writing this post.

I prefer people only leave VM's if it's necessary, DC's paediatrician or the hospital for example.

Tuesday is the only day I can get my food shopping done, she called me three times within the 90 minutes it took me to get everything done. I didn't answer, but it was still distracting. She wanted to know if I was going to visit DM, I already told her the day before that I was.

Feeling burnt out and frustrated I "bit her head off" a bit today and said for the love of god just stop fucking calling my phone.

Blocking her would just mean more voicemails. She has the hide of a rhino.

She was taken aback and is apparently shocked that I'd speak to her that way but WIBU?

I turned off voicemail altogether a few years ago and have never looked back. I'd recommend doing that. You still have the option to set a contact as "always send to voicemail" but effectively the call just goes nowhere.

I'm not sure how to word this appropriately but is she older and is there a possibility that she could be starting a cognitive decline etc? just a thought

You need voicemail enabled if you get medical calls though. Unfortunately.

Cognitively she seems the same as she always has, she has always been a very "full on" person for as long as I've known her. I do wonder there might be some sort of anxiety driving the endless calls though, it's certainly not the norm is it?

Yes I need to keep my voicemail switched on as I get alot of medical related calls for both me and my DC

Do they have dementia?

Agree with getting a new sim and number and putting it in another phone, for £20 your problems would be solved.

Simple solution - every time she rings, pick up and say 'oh DC wants to say hello and have a chat' hand the phone to nearest child (regardless of age or speaking ability), walk away. After a while you can check and see if she's rung off and if not just leave it open. After a few calls like that she'll stop.

She's ridiculous calling that amount.
I would text her or ring hee and say

"Auntie, I cannot cope with these multiple calls a day, I am busy & have a disabled child.

I'll call you Thursday evenings once a week but I cannot stay long on the phone .

please don't leave voicemails at unless it is an absolute emergency information, as I need my voicemail clear for DS's medical appointments"