NEVER recommend a mobile phone to your parents..(long rant!)

[SorenLorensen]

They have had the same mobile phone for about a million years. It's like a housebrick. They never use it. It's a pay per month contract and they have got over £100 worth of credit on it. Mum said she doesn't use it because it's too heavy. This is not true. She doesn't use it because it sends her into a blind spin of panic when it rings and she gets very embarrassed and tries to hide behind racks of clothes in M&S to talk on it in a barely audible whisper.

Fool that I am I suggested they get a phone like mine - nice lightweight, easy-to-use (or so I thought) Nokia. Folds up so no danger of pressing buttons accidentally. Bargain price on Amazon. PAYG - easy as pie. Dh said he could 'unlock' it (as he did with mine) and transfer the sim card to it so they would have the credit.

So far:

1. Phone call to say that ParcelFarce left it on the drive - shocking, should complain to Amazon, you use them a lot dear, are they always this bad?

2. Phone call to say how do you put the battery in.

3. Unannounced visit when dh was home for lunch to ask him to 'unlock' the phone so they could put the O2 sim card from the antique mobile into it.

4. Phone call to say that sim card won't work.

5. Phone call to say that they have rung O2 and sim card (and phone) are now obsolete. Very happy as O2 have agreed to send a new 'free' phone and sign them up to another pay per month agreement (aaaarrrghhhh!) They already have over £100 worth of credit on the existing phone because they never use it - whole point was to stop accumulating money on old phone and switch to PAYG. I pointed this out and was told ah, but now we have one each, and I will definitely use it more.

6. Phone call just now (sorry, love, I know you're working) to say how do you put phone numbers in the address book.

7. Another phone call two minutes later (sorry to disturb you again - how's the work going by the way? Well, bloody fine if someone didn't keep interrupting me every two seconds) to say did I know it has GPS but you have to subscribe to get it so I'll not bother, eh?

8. Mum is coming with the phone this afternoon so I can put the phone numbers in her address book for her. Where they will sit and never be used.

Why didn't I just keep my mouth shut?

Why has it double spaced that? Sorry. Looks like RTKM

lol, u should never recomend anything to parents! I told mine not to pay to send a parcel by special delivery, as it was cheaper to do it online through a courier. So guess who has to pay for it, order it, and chase them up when it is delayed?

Ahh SorenLorensen, but won't this be you in 30 years time, pestering your DCs on the hologram communication link because you can't get that pesky new-fangled 'Transporter' thing to work and you inadvertently arrived in Alpha Centaurai rather than Cheam?

lol - ah know the feeling well, my dad has a mobile, and it's literally a case of he can't text u/ retreive them so no point texting! he can't answer voicemails so don't bother leaving them! lol - in short if he doesn't answer then don't bother - bt it's in his case 90% of the time switched off! lol.

mum's a bit better, she can work most of it out - just has to do it all v v slowly! lol.

the boss in work has one - nightmare - must be the age I recon! lol. (they're in their late 70's)

one of my relatives gave my nan (85 yrs old) a massive nokia phone complete with Irish Tricolor colours face, she has it in a sock (?!) in her handbag, the first time i ever saw her using it, she was speaking into as if it was a walkie-talkie. madness.

she gets all embarrased if it rings while she is on the bus and just lets it ring out, pretending its not her phone.

one of my relatives gave my nan (85 yrs old) a massive nokia phone complete with Irish Tricolor colours face, she has it in a sock (?!) in her handbag, the first time i ever saw her using it, she was speaking into as if it was a walkie-talkie. madness.

she gets all embarrased if it rings while she is on the bus and just lets it ring out, pretending its not her phone.

one of my relatives gave my nan (85 yrs old) a massive nokia phone complete with Irish Tricolor colours face, she has it in a sock (?!) in her handbag, the first time i ever saw her using it, she was speaking into as if it was a walkie-talkie. madness.

she gets all embarrased if it rings while she is on the bus and just lets it ring out, pretending its not her phone.

I'm glad it's not just my Aged Parents
That's so true, issymum, no doubt it will be me in 30 years and my kids will be equally exasperated by my unwillingness to embrace new technology ("but I like emails, dear, yes I know they're slow...")

oops!

Bought my mum one of the Vodafone Simple ones for Christmas. She's made one test call on it. Looks pretty though.

She's had a computer now for over 5 years - never switches it on, "Never has the time". Has been retired for 20 years.

My parents only turn theirs on when they want to make a call. They carry it around in a ridiculous reticule-type bag at arm's length.
I have had to make them a laminated A4, large-type "how to find your ar*e with both hands" basic instruction sheet.
They are 81 and 76 though and do entertain ds with "growing up with no hot water, no electricity and no indoor lavatory" type tales.
LOL at the idea of inflicting similar techno-eejitry on our children in the years to come. Ds already says tetchily it's ITC, muuuum, not IT.

We got MIL one of those Tinker. The way she is treating both her children at the mo I wish we had packed the thing with plastic explosives

Oh dear. Was quite impressed with it as an idiot-proof phone though.

I gave my mum and dad my old mobile after they broke down one night in the middle of the New Forest. It needed credit so we told Dad what to do and sent him off to the shops. He went into Woolies and told the assistant that he needed credit for his mobile. "What sort is it?" they asked. Dad looked confused. "Well, is it Orange?" "No" says Dad "It's black"!

Well the idiot bit is certainly right Tinker. The one benefit of giving that gift from my perspective was I got to check it out to see if it would be any better than my parents' chunky Motorola.

LOL surfermum. Try explaining an iPod to a mad old lady with failing vision...I gave up after about five minutes.

got my mum a mobile for xmas.she rang me when she was out.only i didnt hear phone ringing.looked at phone later on and had an answer phone message.listened to it...it was my mum.she started off by saying to stepdad 'its just ringing.she must be out.'the conversation then went on between them for 25 minutes!!!she didnt hang up.she rang me on the night time and said 'this bloody phone thing is expensive.cost me £10 to ring you today'!!!!!!duh!!!

Sort of off topic, but funny.
I was at a funeral with my 80yr old grandmother when we heard a mobile phone ringing.
Gramma very calmly reached into her handbag....

I love "Is it Orange?" "No, it's black." That's really made me lol

Lol at this thread!

There was an old lady in Boots the other day, with her grandson, in a buggy. A mobile rang and the old lady calmly reached into her pocket and got out a natty mobile, remarking to her gs "That must be grandad on the phone." Very cool, I thought!

My sis bought my Dad one and he hated it! Panicked every time it was mentioned. It was stolen from his car but we reckon it was a -put-up job!!!