to think that my mother shouldn't phone me if she doesn't want to talk?

[youcannotbeserious]

Seriously, this really gets to me....

My mother calls me and when I start to chat (I'm home alone with a 10WO baby and a dog so it's nice to talk to someone!), she cuts me off and says she has to go.

SO WHY CALL ME??????

I know it is simply because she wants to check up on me (She is something of a control freak, and calls 2-3 times a day to check me / DS / dog are OK - If I don't answer the phone, she will get worried )

Even that I can largely cope with - but I just find it really farkin' annoying that she can't even be bothered to listen to me gabble on for 5 or 10 minutes about my day.

As soon as she has ascertained that me / DS / dog are all present and correct, she tells me she has to go because she is busy.

I know it's a little thing, but it drives me mad!!!

Ahh... feel better now!!

YANBU - would drive me round the bend too. What exactly does she thing is going to happen that requires her to check up on you so often?????

God that would be annoying. maybe you should ring her instead!

What would happen if you didn't answer? Would she rush round or leave it till later. Try it and see what happens, you could say you were in the bath or something and couldn't get to the phone. If she doesn't go into a complete panic, leave it more and more until she gets the message.

are you my sister?

We have the same mum.

Or say a friend came round and you needed to talk to someone, so couldn't answer the phone!

If I don't answer the home phone, she will call my mobile. If I don't answer that, she will call the home number again.

I don't mean in 5 minutes, I mean immediately. This process will continue until I answer the phone. Believe me, I've tried everything, but she isn't going to change now

thankfully, she is 400 miles away, so can't pop round!!

Ah well, not so easy then. You will just have to tell her, or ask her why does she ring you so much. Tell her a nice chat at the end of the day when the kids are in bed would be lovely but not every 5 minutes. She must have forgotten how busy us mums are (when we are not on mumsnet) .

I do sometimes answer the phone and simply say 'I'm fine. DS is fine and the dog is fine.'

That winds her up, but it gets my point across!!!

hehe, that is good! Always love winding my mum up! Have you reminded her that she would be contacted if anything was wrong?

Oh, you should have an answerphone message 'I'm fine, ds is fine, the dog's fine'. That would really (and literally) get the message across! By the way, why wouldn't the dog be fine?

YANBU - my mum phones me 2-3 times a day too. Just to check on me. I screen calls and limit her to 2 times a week. I find that we have more to talk albout aswell. I find my mum very strange but she has got to the stage were she cannot change so I just try to manage her odd behaviour.

Go with Songbird - take the piss.

YANBU, it would appear that more of us have these weirdy mums than non weirdy mums. My mums prob is that she can sound really off without trying and if I do the really curt the kids are fine the dog is fine, I can hear her getting more miffed by the second and the whole thing gets harder. Plus mine does the mobile thing too. I often get (orange answer phone) "are you there darling? Pick up the phone."!!!!!

Nope, definately NBU, my mum rings many times a day -as does my grandma! My grandma reaches my voicemail and I can just hear her do a really heavy sigh, sometimes she will say "No, no message" Why leave one then?! lol

turn the ringer to silent. That's what I do when I REALLY don't want to be disturbed! Can't drive you mad if you can't hear it!

Whats more annoying maybe is having a mum who although not really interested in chatting on the phone of an evening, is normally too pissed to remember anything ive said if we do chat.

Then she accuses me of not telling her anything about my life

just ignore her calls, i get fed up with my mum phoning 'when are you coming over to visit??!'. it's annoying, get it every week.

YANBU, if she is ringing you 3 times a day she could at least have the decency to listen to you.

Thanks Shoegazer....

that's my thoughts completely... I'm not out to change her, she likes to call and I'm not going to fall out with her about it..

I suppose I'm more naffed off that I get quite excited when the phone goes (I don't get out much!!! ) so feel a bit deflated when she doesn't want to hear what I'm up to (which I do appreciate is not very interesting, but still!)