Does anyone else have parents who drive them mad?

[50sandFabulous]

Gah. I do my Dad's Asda shop on-line, twice a week. He's 84 and not on-line. He always calls me the day before he wants to place the order, just to check that I can take the order the next day (which I always can, as I WFH). I told him yesterday, that I would call him today, once I have a gap in my schedule to do it. Cue him calling from 8.55am, and calling and calling and calling, and leaving voicemails, to remind me that his list is ready. Same thing happens every single time! Drives me nuts! I will call you when I'm ready!!

Can you print out a load of these and he puts it in the post first class??
He'll then call to ask if it's arrived but you can always put your phone on silent!

Oh god yes, my Mother does, and she's only 71, and loves to tell me she'll be dead soon; she is fit as a fiddle and has ongoing niggles that she over inflates (think IBS is stomach cancer, multiple scans, year later same thing again). She takes not responsibility for diet and cannot fathom it could be anything to do with it!
My lovely df on the other hand died too soon, and God what I'd give for him to annoy me! Miss him like crazy.

Oh, god you're giving me vibes of my own MIL, who, because she brought up 12 younger brothers and sisters in the kind of household where the girls basically tended to the boys and their father (don't start me) before having her own large family, of which DS is the youngest, thinks of herself as a baby expert.

Her thing with babies is repeatedly clicking her fingers about an inch from the baby's eyes, saying 'Babies love this!' When, not surprisingly, the baby cries because it's not crazy about having someone click their fingers right up in its face, she looks very disapproving, as though this baby didn't get the memo and is letting the side down by not liking the thing all babies.

I have known her since 1992, and I have seen her around her numerous grand children and great grandchildren, great-nephews and nieces etc, and I have never seen a baby enjoy her eye clicking routine.

Yet this has never yet stopped her....

Why can't your dad use a mobile anymore?
Has he forgotten how to use it?
A telephone is very basic and simple by comparison, and your dad's only lifeline.
Why doesn't he put his hearing aids in? Is it because his fingers don't work so well anymore trying to push fiddly buttons etc, or is it because he doesn't see anybody all day so doesn't bother?
Your dad sounds quite anxious, when you can't hear and you're on your own, you can get to feel very isolated.
Is your dad lonely? Is he calling hoping that you'll pick up the phone and talk to him?
Unfortunately when our world shrinks, we become self-centred, and worried that our needs might not be met, such as the weekly shop.
Sadly we're all going to get there someday, if we live that long.
It's going to be difficult most times OP, but try a bit of patience, treat your dad as you would hope to be treated someday.

Exactly. It's awful moaning about your parents. Be thankful you've still got them.

What a load of pious crap. Some of us didn’t get great parents, and have spent our entire lives looking after them and dealing with their issues. I was filling in forms and reading for my illiterate parents from the age of eight or so, and helping them to hide the fact that they could barely sign their names. I was so thoroughly parentified that when I experienced CSA I didn’t tell them because I knew they’d do nothing. Excuse me if I think that’s far from ideal.

Quite. Plenty of awful people are just as fertile as the lovely ones.