Dear Queenie,
My mother, who is retired, complains that no one in the family ever calls her. The reason we don’t call her is that when we do she wants to talk for literally an hour or more and we don’t want to hang up on her but we have our lives to live and our jobs to go to and we just don’t have all that much spare time.
Queenie, how can we cut her off without being rude?—Telephone Etty Ket
Dear Etty Ket,
Set a timer, preferably one with a nice loud bell or buzzer, when you call her or answer one of her calls, and when the time goes off tell her “Sorry, but someone is at the door” or “you have to take the food off the stove (or out of the oven, or whatever).” And, when you call her, try to do so when you have time for a nice long chat.
Apparently your retired mother is bored and/or lonely. Can you help her find some outside interest, like volunteering or joining a club or other mutual-interest group? With luck, she will get so busy that she will not have time to talk to you.
