Elderly parents make phone calls unbearable

[Anonymous]

This only happens with them, and I use my phone all day long.

Whenever I call, they can’t hear me. I don’t know if it’s the delay they don’t account for, or their phones (they blame MY phone, but like I said this only happens with them) but my mom never hears me talking, she talks right over me. Then she will say she just can’t hear me, it must my phone. I have to basically SHOUT at her to get her to let me get a word in.

They don’t accept that it could be their end/phone/hearing and blame it solely on me and my “expensive, fancy iPhone” that “isn’t worth its weight in gold” Anyone else encounter this with their parents?

[Anonymous]

They must have a hearing issue and /or a phone issue, plus that very annoying finger-pointing personality. Maybe you can help them get their hearing checked, or reset their phone settings. Or maybe your mother is going senile.

My mother sometimes doesn't hear what I'm saying, and at 72 probably needs her hearing checked. But it doesn't happen frequently enough for it to be a problem.

[Anonymous]

Stop the phone calls and switch to instant messaging.

[Anonymous]

Can you teach them to Facetime? That might be easier since then they can SEE you talking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can you teach them to Facetime? That might be easier since then they can SEE you talking.

I get the impression these iPhone haters don’t themselves have iPhones lol

[Anonymous]

Zoom
Facetime
Skype

These are not new inventions

[Anonymous]

Hearing aids, or using Zoom / facetime / Google meet so they can read your lips.

[Anonymous]

Tell them you are calling them from a landline and ask if they can hear you better this time (I assume only you have the iPhone and they use the landline?)

[Anonymous]

WhatsApp.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Stop the phone calls and switch to instant messaging.

Are you being sarcastic?

[Anonymous]

All these responses are so incredibly clueless.

[Anonymous]

I call and say hello.

Then I put it on speaker phone and let them talk.

If I have to respond (which rare because my mom just wants to talk), my mom can’t hear me, talks over me, interrupts before I’ve said anything.

One thing I do is ask them to turn off the tv because they have it on sound level 85.

One thing my friend got that helped was bought her parents a grandpad.

They were able to use that because you can control it somehow for them

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All these responses are so incredibly clueless.

And yours is... useful?

Ha.

[Anonymous]

I wouldn't be taking any phone calls until they got hearing aids.

I have an uncle that plays this game. He refuses to get hearing aids, but then gets angry at us when he can't hear our conversations (in person) and really can't participate in conversation anymore. We were accommodating for several years, but enough is enough. He can't even hear us when we shout.

[Anonymous]

Hearing loss can fast-track the road to dementia. I would make a deal with them that you will use landline if they get hearing checked. You could also FaceTime or text instead, My mom did all of that especially the interrupting.