My parents are late 60's/early 70's in fairly good health. When DF retired they moved to arse end of nowhere in Wales. Moaned endlessly about being lonely and not seeing enough of us/grandchildren. We encouraged them to move nearer us (England about 40 minute drive from where they previously lived), or at least to move to a town with stuff to do and people to meet. They moved to a town, still in Wales and further away from us than before. Continued to mither about how we never saw them etc. etc. They have been there 11 years and still have no friends, hobbies etc. We see them probably every 6-8 weeks. I have two sisters, one sister they fell out with 6 years ago and has been NC ever since and the other sister has a bit of a chaotic life and they are either speaking to her and she is wonderful or she is a terrible person and dead to them. I am in touch with NC sister, but tend to avoid chaotic sister unless we are with our parents at the same time. I am the only one with children.
My parents have been increasingly needy during the pandemic. They have taken the whole thing very personally. They ring and message several times a day complaining about all the things they cannot do. They cannot visit us, we cannot stay with them, they can't do xyz. We met up with them several times last summer when we were allowed. Walks, national trust etc etc. This was never enough. Christmas together wasn't able to happen and they wailed down the telephone and sent our children letters that sounded like they were about to be executed and were saying their final goodbyes. Now we are in the throes of home learning, we are trying to run a business, struggling with brexit-induced nonsense, helping out MIL (alone and older/frailer than my parents) and it appears I am also expected to provide entertainment and sympathy to two capable adults who have largely caused their own misery. I have told them I can't chat during the day because of school and work. Last week I tried not answering the phone to them during they day and calling back each evening for a quick call with a deadline (saying dinner in 10 minutes just checking in, then enforcing the time limit). After two days of that, they started withholding their number when ringing and wailing when I said I couldn't talk now. It's exhausting. I am overwhelmed. I would dearly love to tell them both to get lost. Am I being unfair? Would this just cause more wailing? They've always been a bit like this, but corona has either exacerbated it or given them more excuse to indulge it. Or, am I just feeling less tolerant of it all because of everything else?