<p>Children call home?</p>
<p>Eons ago, when I was in college my parents insisted on a weekly phone call. The phone was in the center room of our suite, near the door, and we tended to leave the door unlocked. One early Sunday morning my parents called and one of the guys down the hall heard the phone ringing as he walked by, opened the door and answered the phone, “UCDALUM, yeah, she’s still in bed, I’ll get her for you…” I’m not sure what they thought, but they didn’t call that early again.</p>
<p>My DD’s a junior now, and calls when something really cool happens, or if she needs something, or if she needs someone to talk to when walking across campus alone at night. Today I called her for no reason, and she sounded surprised. But yeah, that adds up to a couple times a month. She does occasionally text. But email? Apparently that is for dinosaurs.</p>
<p>When my son went off to college (he’s now a senior) I had to text him after about 10 days to tell him to call his mother RIGHT NOW or my wife was going to have a nervous breakdown. He settled in to calling once a week on Sunday afternoon/evening but we’re lucky to get 15 minutes out of him. My daughter started this year - she calls at least once a week, often a mid-week call as well and gives us much more information - 45 - 60 minute calls (actually, I’m usually on for the first 20 - 25 minutes then I wander away and she and my wife go for another 30 - 40 minutes.</p>
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<p>LOL!! I have a feeling I’ll be in that boat next year.</p>
<p>I send a daily email. In response, the freshman sends an email about four or five days a week, down from daily when he first arrived at college. The college senior used to send an email about once a week (but could go several weeks). However, he currently is in close contact (an email every day or even several a day) since he has lots of interesting stuff going on right now.</p>
<p>Phone calls are rare for either, usually reserved for high profile news. I have never looked at facebook (not sure if/how much the kids use it). We don’t text with them, although a kind cc poster did recently show me how to text through my computer if I need to.</p>
<p>The calls we get are usually in the 45-60 minute range but the quality varies…it’s amazing how long D can go without seemingly inhaling when she’s on a roll. Even slipping in an “Uh-huh” can be a challenge sometimes.</p>
<p>My D calls her mom once or twice a week and if she can’t get through, she immediately calls me - at work. She expects me to make conversation, as neither of us are comfortable talking at length. </p>
<p>My S, only 3 years younger, belongs to the new generation which really doesn’t understand that cell phones started out as speaking machines. It’s text or nothing.</p>
<p>Generally nothing.</p>
<p>I call my mom almost everyday. I sometimes go two days without talking to her, but never more. Usually it’s a quick, 10 minute chat just to see where things are, but it’s nice to talk to her.</p>
<p>Sorry, I know this thread is old but it came up in a search.</p>
<p>My DD started her second year of college and I felt better last year when she was a freshman and we brought her to school helped her unpack and settle in. </p>
<p>This year she went on her own in her car. We asked her to call us when she arrived which she didn’t. We texted her and got the shortest response. I send her message to please call us yesterday and still nothing. Last night I send another one saying I was dissapointed that she couldn’t take 10 minutes to call home. Her response was she wasn’t ignoring us
and was busy.</p>
<p>Now it’s Almost 3 days later and we barely heard from her…<br>
How many times do I keep I asking her???</p>
<p>I have gotten exactly 1 call from my son who I took to school 2 weeks ago, AND the only reason he called is because his older brother made him.</p>
<p>I guess that is a good sign. I used to know he was happy at camp when I would only get the weekly letter the counselors made him write.</p>
<p>I figure I’ll hear something if anything terrible happens.</p>
<p>Danval, back in the old days, we couldn’t easily call long distance. I rarely ever called home. It wasn’t that I didn’t love my parents … I was just busy being on my own.</p>
<p>I think cell phones give us an unrealistic expectation that our kids want to be in touch with us all the time. They will call if they need us!</p>
<p>My son has been school for a whole 10 days. He is a freshman, so the first few days were orientation, and then classes began. I noticed that he is willing to talk when he has a free moment. It just seems as though his “free” moment (meaning a moment without someone around him, or where he isn’t being asked to go somewhere or do something) has been nearly non-existent. I initiated a few phone calls and they lasted less than 15 seconds each! He finally called me and I thought that I had a few minutes to speak with him, but as soon as he called me a new friend knocked on his door, so that conversation might been 30 seconds long. He is sharing things with me, but in 15 second sound bites. I am happy because I know my son is happy!</p>
<p>1st load of laundry generated a flurry of texts :)</p>
<p>My son, who is a sophomore, calls a few times a week, usually at the end of my day (I teach but am free) just to let me know what’s up. I do like to hear from him when he is under the weather, which has been the case the past several days, so I can tell him which medicines to take. But generally, we try to e-mail a few times a week.</p>
<p>My third just started his sophomore year of college. All 3 boys seem to like to call while they are walking somewhere…sometimes between classes or while running an errand. It works for us! it’s much better when they call me than when I call them because I always seem to call at just the wrong time…but they never seem to mind when I do call.</p>
<p>My H travels extensively and last year I sometimes got lonely in our big but empty house. Each of the boys said just let them know I needed a call…they never minded.</p>
<p>I think the important thing is just not to nag…</p>
<p>My D is a talk-to-mom-while-walking person also, boysx3. It makes it so that parent talk doesn’t interfere with the rest of college life and also puts a time limit on the calls (however long it takes her to get somewhere). Hey, she’s not the only one who has a life!</p>
<p>LMNOP, I think you put your finger right on it! They get parental brownie points while not interfering with their lives…!</p>
<p>Spoken to S2 a few times this week, all but one were calls initiated by him (the other was trying to locate the key for his car, which is at home). The really nice thing is that he has an iPhone 4 as does his mother so we use the FaceTime (WiFi) feature to do video calling. It’s great because we can not only see him, but he can activate the rear mounted camera and we can see what he is looking at. Got to love technology.</p>
<p>My kids text or email me way more than calling. Calling on an actual phone denotes that they need something that can’t be explained well using other forms of technology.</p>
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<p>Priceless!</p>