Published on 12, July, 2020
Are you around Roy, as this will probably appeal to you.
For the fortnight following Mothering Sunday, there had been no contact between myself and my mother, and it felt like absolute bliss. There had been no attempted SOS-style phone calls or messages requesting urgent assistance with her tech. Admittedly, this was partly because my mother had been away for a few days, which is something I wish she would make a habit of.
After her return towards the latter part of last week, my mother wasted no time in phoning. Fortunately, she wasn't requesting any 'urgent' tech help, but she did spend the best part of an hour talking AT me and barely pausing for breath.
My son and I had known that it would only be a matter of time until my mother made one of her SOS tech-distress phone calls, and sure enough it happened earlier this evening. I suppose I should be thankful that the length of her call was 'only' 20 minutes.
Whilst there are aspects of technology I know I would miss if it didn't exist, I do wish my mother had no desire in wanting to use it. If one was to take the technology away from my mother, I feel it would possibly make life less stressful for myself and my son.
Anyway, while I had been listening to my mother, I had got her on speakerphone, but with the volume turned down low. I had been holding my phone in such a way that my hand was covering the speaker. Despite the low volume, my hand was clearly protesting at the pitch of her voice, as I could feel sound vibrations in my hand as she was talking. In case anyone is wondering, my mother does not have a booming voice like Brian Blessed.
I completely understand, it’s similar to listening to a muted trombone like on the Charlie Brown cartoons when adults talk. As you know I am living with my mother at the moment, I live in an annex and haven’t ventured into her part of the house for nearly a week.
There has been total ‘radio silence’ for the same amount of time, this is also telephone related, one of the things that can instantly trigger me is telephones, my mother will be having a phone conversation with someone else and then randomly shove the phone in my face to answer questions from the other person. This is the quickest way to put my brain into a panic.
i must admit that I didn’t react very well but this has happened before and I’ve asked for this not to happen, as usual I’m just being a big baby. I actually prefer ‘radio silence’, it uses less bandwidth at the moment.
More like a Wah-Wah pedal, for a guitar.
At least, You don't know Jack said so.
Your second paragraph has brought back memories of a couple of similar situations. The first was an ex-boyfriend who thrust the phone at me and told me to talk to his mother, whom I had never previously met. The conversation was so stilted, and it was clear she felt just uncomfortable about talking to me, as I felt about talking to her.
The second occasion was when a friend thrust her phone at me to talk to her boyfriend. Fortunately, although we had never previously met, we had exchanged occasional comments with each other on Facebook. Nevertheless, I felt relieved when my friend's boyfriend asked if I could pop her back on the phone again.
It's horrible when one is put on the spot and forced into unexpected situations like that. Therefore, I can understand why you didn't react well to your mother shoving the phone in your face... especially considering your immense dislike of talking on the phone.