Actual phone calls you do NOT want to receive from your child

<p>Call from son at large university…</p>

<p>Mom,
I need to change my major again. </p>

<p>Son, you have already changed your major twice. It is the end of your junior year. </p>

<p>I’m sorry, Mom, but I cannot stand business. I want to take English literature.</p>

<p>This means you will have to take a fifth year. It is costly with two in college.</p>

<p>I’m sorry, Mom, but I love my English classes.</p>

<p>-------------------Son graduates after five years. What does he do? He ended up running a successful business.</p>

<p>very entertaining thread, actually… Thanks for posting!</p>

<p>Wow, I get calls all the time, asking me where things are–the caller is usually at home (or wherever they’re living) & I am usually not–sometimes I’m on the road, sometimes in another state or island, or at least in another room from wherever they are. Moms and wives are supposed to be psychic, I guess. Love when hubby calls me from across the house and asks, “What is this?” I have no idea what he’s talking about or holding or referring to. My psychic radar just isn’t as strong as folks believe.</p>

<p>Still remember S called me from 5000+ miles away, late on a Sunday night before his 1st day of work at a new job, “Mom, I am locked out of the apartment I’m supposed to be renting. Whoops, gotta go, my phone battery is dying and I don’t know where the charger is.” </p>

<p>Think that’s where some of our white hair sprouts from.</p>

<p>I’d imagine I’d be the one putting my parents in such situations. Sometimes, I always wonder how much I freak them out.</p>

<ul>
<li><p>A year ago, I was ridesharing with a few friends from southern California back to northern California after winter break. From where I was, it’s a 360mi drive. After filling up on gas, there was a detour due to construciton and I missed the sign back to the freeway. It’s 11pm. Nonetheless, being the extremely adventurous person I am, I just continued down the country road. 30min later, one of the girls in the car calls her mom: “we drove down this uncharted dim road in the middle of nowhere and passed two dinky towns and an uncounted number of intersections; I think we’re lost”. 15min, and her mom still couldn’t figure out where we were. Meanwhile, I remained calm and said something among the lines of: knowing the slant of the I-5 and the general direction, as long as we make a random left-turn on the next intersection, we should make it back to a major freeway. After the call ended and everyone thought we were gonna die, I found myself on another freeway; backtracking on Google Maps, I had taken a 120mi detour in middle-of-nowhere, central valley.</p></li>
<li><p>Few months ago, I had a high-spped crash on my bicycle. Knowing that my parents oculdn’t do anything from 350mi and 3000mi away, I decided to not give them a phone call initially. However, the next time they called me, right after the usual introduction was: “oh yeah, the medical insurance is great: it really paid for itself in a few days” I ended up with a rather unusual break in my wrist. Best part comes later, when they wanted to purchase me a purchase a car, but I was like: “if I broke my wrist crashing at 25mph, imagine what could happen at 70mph; it’s almost three times the speed or eight times the energy!”</p></li>
</ul>

<p>Sometimes, I really think the best thing to do is to not inform my parents until it becomes a laughable story. :)</p>

<p>Yes, my kiddos know me too well. I am still grateful that D didn’t tell me her bike collided with a moving car until I saw her in person and could see that she was whole & apparently OK (the day after the incident). She knew I’d fret & worse if she just told me over the phone 2500 miles away.</p>

<p>My S assured me he’d be able to get to the allergist he’s been seeing for many years just fine. I let him have the car. It’s supposed to be a 15 minute ride & he left giving himself just 15 minutes to get there. About 30 minutes later, I get a phone call, “Hey, mom, is the doc’s office near the airport–I’m passing the airport on the freeway now.”<br>
Me: “Uh, no, it’s about 10+ miles BEFORE the airport and toward the mountains.”
S: “Uh, OK, I guess I’ll be somewhat late.” (S did have a GPS and is an EE.)</p>

<p>Not scary, bit SO typical:</p>

<p>“Mom my sport coat is too small and I have an interview.”</p>

<p>“What color pants are you going to wear?”</p>

<p>“Gray”</p>

<p>“OK, you can wear your black jacket and a tie with some color.”</p>

<p>“Gray and black? Are you sure that goes? I hope you’re right because I have to leave in 3 minutes.”</p>

<p>Boys…</p>

<p>Oh yea, I still remember S telling me, in person, after his 10 day “vacation” home in Hawaii before returning to LA & then going to his job in VA:
“Hey mom, I fly back to the mainland tomorrow–when are we going shopping so I can get clothes for work?” [This is after an entire 10 days of, “what should we do while you’re in town?” “nothing!”]</p>

<p>Me: “Oh, OK, what did you have in mind?”
S: “Let’s go shopping for work clothes–I only have college clothes–mostly shorts & t-shirts [all very true].”
Me: “OK.”
We ended up buying a dozen shirts from 6 different stores. He packed about 5 of them & had me return the rest from all over the shopping center. We also bought him slacks from the one place he could find that fit him, Walmart, boys 16 slim dress slacks!</p>

<p>Not one I’ve received but a story that was was on the news last last night that had my son and I laughing when I told him “that is not a phone call I would like to get”. It probably went along the lines of:</p>

<p>Boy: “Mom, I’m in a high speed chase getting chased by the police. What should I do”
Mom: “try and outrun them - drive faster”</p>

<p>Yup, he called his mom on his cell and asked her what to do and she told him to try and out run them.</p>

<p>First thing I though of was this thread. Is that sad?</p>

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<p>You really have to wonder why people don’t think before making such calls. My city recently implemented an “Amber Alert” type of system that automatically dials every household when a child is missing. In theory, I think it’s a great idea. But the calls begin with, “This is the Northampton Police Department …” </p>

<p>The first time I got such a call, I was on a lousy phone in a noisy room so I couldn’t tell right away that it was just a recording. It really took my breath away. The second time, my heart attack was a bit briefer because I was better able to discern the recorded voice. But, afterward, I did phone the police to suggest a different opening … something more along the lines of, “This is an important recorded message …”</p>

<p>But, in defense of Northampton’s Finest, one thing that I thought they did well was to send out a follow-up call once the missing child was found safe. And, mercifully, this call didn’t begin in the same scary way that the initial one had.</p>

<p>I work at a school and I always preface my message with “this is Mrs. X from X’s school - don’t worry, everything is fine…”</p>

<p>I think this one is award worthy:received 2 days after dropping child off at freshman orientation AT 4 AM: " Hi- how would you like me to pay for an ER visit?" No information given as to why she is there! Craziest call ever!</p>

<p>Daughter, driving back by herself, with Garmin that we gave her:
“Mom, I stopped to get gas, I should be home around 6”
“OK, where are you?”
“I don’t know.”
“Are you lost?”
“I don’t THINK so…”</p>

<p>Not a call, but my son’s facebook status for today. “I just jumped out of a plane.” He’s an adult who took a day off of work to celebrate his birthday. I e-mailed him and thanked him for not sharing his plans beforehand.</p>

<p>My roomate got a call from HIS MOM. “Have you seen Steve, his Mom can’t get ahold of him?” Steve was his best friend from High School who had just transferred from a Jr college to a University. Everyone was on edge for 4 weeks. Parents had gotten a call from the University and they said that he had “some inaccuracies on his transcirpt”. He had forged it to get in.</p>

<p>His mom traced his credit card (at $4000) to Califonia. She flew out and found him sleeping in his car, smelling like crap. He had been washing dishes in Burbank.</p>

<p>Wow, that may have been the best $4K his mom ever spent! Fascinating the things folks do. Not surprise the kid is having a high speed chase with cops if the parents’ reaction is “drive faster.”</p>

<p>Great thread. </p>

<p>So it’s a friday late afternoon. I’m at a semi-private pilates class. My phone rings. Pilates instructor picks it up, sees it’s from my D whom she knows and answers the phone with “House of Pain and Torture”. Ends up it’s a guy so she quickly hands the phone over to me. Well it’s my D’s indoor track coach wanting to know if I know where my daughter is. I respond with a hesitant “With You?” She and a friend (both distance runners) went out for their long run. They were do back 45 minutes before the call and hadn’t come back. He had no idea where they were! Well it’s upstate NY and 5:00 in the winter so it’s dark out. Ends up to make a long story short they got lost on their run, ended up in another town, borrowed some very NICE man’s phone as he was putting gas in his car and called the other girls boyfriend since that was the only number they could remember. Nice boyfriend came and got them and deposited them back at the school 2 hours after they were do back. Lots of gray hairs from all the adults - not just H and I but coaches and the director of sports. Lots of interesting information came out - they crossed a small pond that wasn’t quite frozen, D lost her glasses from a tree branch and they needed to stop and find them in the snow, came up close and personal with a cow. It really was funny AFTER the fact.</p>

<p>I had just dropped my son back at college and when he called me I was in my car:</p>

<p>Son: omg, omg, it’s bad. It’s really bad. </p>

<p>Me: What is it?</p>

<p>Son: Promise you won’t get mad.</p>

<p>Me: I won’t. </p>

<p>Son: I forgot my books at home on the counter. </p>

<p>Me: <em>big sigh</em></p>

<p>^^^ H and S drove 3 hours to go skiing. When they got to the slopes, they realized S left his ski jacket on the sofa at home. It was a COLD day, and the cheapest ski jacket sold in the lodge was $150. They came home. :(</p>

<p>^^^I bet the conversation home must have been pretty heated in that car.</p>

<p>^^Not a phone call but a similar story: we had a 4-day ski weekend in Utah. S2 flew with DH on the first flight, while S2 flew with me on a second flight. We all had connected in Chicago, which is where S2 discovered that he had left his ski jacket in our car parked at the airport.</p>

<p>DH had to buy S2 a ski jacket when they arrived in Salt Lake City. Fortunately the jackets were deeply discounted at the end of January. S2 paid us back for the new jacket out of his allowance.</p>

<p>As you can tell from this thread, S2 has quite a track record. Several years ago I purchased a Piggy Bank for S2. We call it the “I Saved His Bacon” Bank. Every time we do something to save S2 (ie. lost car keys, forgotten prom tickets, etc.), we put a small slip of paper in the bank with a date & description. Some day in the future - perhaps his wedding day? - we will crack open the “I Saved His Bacon” bank and read all the slips of paper.</p>