Several of my blog entries reference phone conversations I’ve had with my kids such as in the recent Initially Yours. I don’t know where I stand in the national average as far as the frequency of phone calls to my children goes, but I suspect I fall short on the Jewish Mother Constant Contact Index. Both my kids are in their twenties now and live on their own with jobs and lives I only know about from what they tell me.
Daughter tells me much, often more than expected, occasionally more than I’m ready for. She lives in the city and we speak on the phone about twice a week, more often if it’s crisis time or there’s something exciting to share. Many of our phone calls are like drive-bys with glancing bullets of news or power point presentations covering the main topics. But once a week we have a real talk, and for those conversations I find a comfortable spot and a glass of wine or iced tea and settle back. If I close my eyes while Daughter is speaking, I can picture her facial expressions and even the hand gestures she uses to punctuate her words. I can see them clearly because they’re so much like my own.
My calls with Son are more concrete and defined, with less meandering opinion and digression. We speak most often to convey information such as plans to meet for dinner. When I attempt to imagine where he is while we’re speaking, I’m usually given one word to go on, like “home” or “work” or “my car”. I’m left to conjure up darkness or sunlight or heavy traffic by the inflection in his voice and the hands on the clock. Whereas his sister might rattle off a dozen symptoms with accompanying detail, Son goes right for the base hit with “I’m sick.” I relish his measured banter and sly wit as well as the crumbs of perception he drops without warning. In our conversations, I give him investment without investigation because it feels like that’s what he needs.
All this introspection about phone calls with my children is a result of discovering the website Send Amy. Amy is a thirty-something woman who has been saving her Jewish mother’s phone messages on her answering machine for over a decade. She has turned them into a career in stand-up comedy and even released them on CD. My local radio station played one the other morning and I wiped out.
When you click on the link below, you’ll be sent to a page where you can listen to select messages. The ones I loved are titled Red Robe and Lambskin Condoms. You’ll need RealPlayer or something like it. And if you’re listening at work, watch the volume because Amy’s mom bolts out of the gate loud and clear and hits the ground running. Probably all the way to Boca.
Daughter’s Featured Fotos take us on City Outings
ad hoc art show
fun at the museum
extinctly amusing
family day