Reply to Sister is unhappy about how FaceTime calls with our niece are going

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I have a three year old daughter, and my sister also has a three year old daughter. Sister lives about 6 hours away, so we only see them every few months, but it’s always a good time.

To help build a relationship between the two cousins, we try to FaceTime. I’ll be completely honest, I’m not a huge fan of Facetiming with a three year old; the set up is kind of awkward, and her attention span is [b]10 mins at most[/b]. I’ll admit that my sister initiates the calls much more frequently than I do, and I’m not great at returning her calls. It always seems like she calls at not great times (ex right during dinner or bedtime), but again, it’s on me to return her call. Also worth mentioning that I’ll FT her, and she’ll pick up when she’s not in a FT friendly environment (ex. loud restaurant, sporting event), but she’ll continue the call like it’s not a big deal.

Sister called me yesterday to tell me that she’s unhappy that I’m not doing a better job facilitating the relationship between the two cousins. She said that our niece gets said whenever I don’t answer the Facetime calls. Again, I do admit that I’m not great at returning the calls, so I’m in the wrong about that for sure, but I feel pretty terrible that our niece is sad about that.

I then asked her what she’d like me to do better, and she said that she’d like the cousins to have actual conversation, and for me not to hang up the call after 10 mins. I reiterated to her that sometimes I don’t pick up because it’s a bad time, or DD is fussy, and I want the call to be a good experience for all. Her response was “oh I understand, but if she’s fussy, maybe we can help her feel better.”
So I’m at a crossroads with this. On one hand, my lack of picking up/initiating the calls deserved to be called out, and I feel especially terrible that my niece is sad over this. On the other hand, I can’t help but think her expectations are a little unrealistic. I mean they’re both three years old, is she expecting that they are hold a conversation for a whole hour?[/quote]

I can't believe she can do 10 minutes. That's a long time for a three year old. I have no advice. I hate Facetime - we live 1000 miles away from all family and it's the only way we ever see anyone, so we have to do it. My kid is 10 and is just now able to have a conversation and care about it. Your sister is being unreasonable.[/quote]

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