How often do you ring your elderly parents?

[Chunkymenrock]

Every Sunday I ring my Mum and Dad for a good chat, so once a week. We also might email once or twice a week too. They are elderly but healthy and perfectly self sufficient. I'm just curious how often people ring theirs, after having a conversation with a 68 year old, whose 3 children each ring her 3 times a day!

My DM is 78, lives about a mile or so away and I speak to her once or twice a week. She's a widow and I do it out of a sense of duty more than anything. We aren't close as she's done some awful things in the past that I can't forgive her for.

I ring or FaceTime my parents once or twice a week for around an hour to catch up. DH phones his maybe once a month as they live much closer. My parents aren't elderly yet though!

Once a week, maybe twice. They hate using the phone and refuse to use anything like face time, keeping them on the phone for longer than a minute or two is next to impossible.

Video call nearly everyday (I lived abroad for four years, so we got used to video calls being the norm rather than phone). She needs it right now. My dad is the most talkative of blokes, neither is my brother. And she obviously can't get out much right now. But, it is slightly exhausting. I miss being alone.

Widowed Mum in her 80s. Visit monthly and call daily, usually for 15/20 mins but sometimes just for 5 mins to check all ok.

Jaysus, my parents live on the other side of town, just a 5 Minute drive & saw them several times a week at least pre Covid but they like to get their money's worth out of a call/zoom so it takes a minimum of 45 minutes & it's draining. I've been trying to get dc to call themselves as my work is so busy I can't keep up the happy for that long atm 😟

Email twice a week, actually ring only once every few weeks.

@RockingMyFiftiesNot

Widowed Mum in her 80s. Visit monthly and call daily, usually for 15/20 mins but sometimes just for 5 mins to check all ok.

Sorry should add daily calls have only been since the first lockdown as she can't see people / do her usual activities. Previously probably every other day/ every 3 days.

My mum is 89 living alone. Before covid she had a great social life, afternoon dances, lunches out cinema with friends. I rang about twice a week in those halcion days and she rang in between if she had any family news to tell me.
These lockdown days? I ring every day about 4.o'clock and she rings if she has the slightest thing to tell me to break up her day. She still has loads of friends and will often be on the phone to them for over an hour every day. She is in a bubble with me and dh so she comes for lunch on Sundays and I go over once during the week with shopping ext.
She is a very independent lady generally but our area was in tier 3 then 4 before the general lockdown so she is definitely struggling a bit with the isolation now.

Yes, the isolation makes it difficult. I haven’t seen my parents for almost a year now. They have friends and activities they used to do, but all are stopped now. They still have each other, which is something.

Mil is a perky 97 year old . She lives alone . 3 mornings a week a carer goes in . On a Friday she usually has a hairdresser appt . One day we take her shopping . One day we go for coffee . ( We are not in the UK)
The days that she has a carer or we go out we just ring in the evening just to check she is ok . Some days it’s morning and evening .
Mainly because my gran had a stroke and it was two days before the milkman raised the alarm . We were living abroad at the time .
I can’t bear the thought of her waiting if anything happens, altho she has a pendant alarm I am not sure she wears it a lot .

At least once a day even if it's just a quick call to say hi :)

.My mum, mid-80s, I call or WhatsApp every morning and WhatsApp through the day. See her on average 4 times a week, more in good weather. She's alone and needs company .

PiL are retired, considerably younger, I don't think of them as elderly

My mum's 83 and she rings me every day at 2 pm. This has only been "a thing" since Covid. It's annoying but I try to accept it with good grace because she's lonely and isolated. She's a great conversationalist but I wish I didn't have to talk to her every day. I don't feel I can ask her not to ring so often without making her feel bad. Also I know that one day she won't be around anymore and I'll miss her terribly.

I phone my 87 year old Dad every evening.

I ring my parents on a Sunday too. Both mid 80's and live too far away to visit. Our Sunday phone calls are more historical as it was always cheaper to use the phone on a Sunday when we only had land lines.

I will sometimes call in the week just to make sure they are okay, but our longer chats are on a Sunday.

I ring my mum every day and visit at least once a week (she's 30 miles away so it's not just a case of quickly popping in) and I go to see my dad every weekday.

Both dh and I pretty much daily. Our parents aren’t ‘ancient’, they range from 65-75. But since lockdown we have had baby and live overseas, so the only contact they can have with him is FaceTime. They basically watch a baby trashing the house every day, and comment on dribble.
My mother has also been ill with Cancer treatment the last year, so been fully isolating and gets bored.
She now also facetimes her elderly mother daily ( who lives 5 min walk away), and she jokes she’s never spoken to her so much! As previously they would have walked and visited each other maybe once we week max.

Before CV it was a couple of time a week.
Since last March it is almost every day.

About once a week and chat for half an hour or so to both of them (early 80s) my mum is always on the phone to someone or other, they have a lot of friends and other family members. Whatsapp/text/email with mum several times a week, Dad doesn't use a smartphone. They don't like video calls.

Mum is 75 lives alone. I call on Saturday mornings and we what's app once or twice in the week, sometimes more. DB lives nearby and they are bubbled so he pops in once or twice a week.

I spoke to my mum every day of my life at least once, even when I lived on the other side of the world and had time differences etc to factor in.

DH speaks to his parents most days, usually about practical stuff like they want help with the computer or he wants to borrow his dad’s drill or whatever (pre Covid I mean) in lockdown he does as he just wants to check in.

My octogenarian DM FaceTimes me, or I her, pretty much every day. (May miss the odd day if we had a long chat the day before.)

Haven't seen her since the first lockdown and thank God for modern technology. We phone too, but I like being able to see how she's looking - and show her what's going on in and around my house. I like her company on screen when I'm baking, we check out each other's clothing or other online purchases, she shows me what's flowering in her garden ...

We spent years living on different continents with intermittent, unreliable phone contact. Now we're in the same country I don't want to waste ... Well. Let's just say she becomes more precious to me with every day that passes.

I don't really call, only to confirm I'm going to visit, which is 2/3 times a week. It's my Nanna, she is 90 and only has me.