Phone mum (she knows everything)

I heard yesterday about a mum in her seventies who still manages all the paperwork for her sons who are in their forties, so it works both ways.

Ugh, I remember receiving a call at work from my son who was going to school in another province. He was totally lost in traffic in a city unknown to him and needed help! This was before GPS or google maps on phones. He was lucky to have a cellphone.

I managed to log onto a map with my work computer, find his school address and guide him to the nearest highway exit. My co-workers had a chuckle, but later that evening I called him back to see how his day went, and to suggest (scold) look ingat a map before he started driving in a strange city.

My worst call was from my 20 year old at that time daughter saying "Hi I'm in a police station in Havana".

Luckily this was years before telephone scams!

I have memories of my son phoning me in Indonesia to inform me that the battery in my car, which he was using while I was living abroad, had failed and what was he to do? I suggested, from half way round the world, that he go to Halfords and buy a new one. Reader - that was the perfect solution as the car started working again! 😂

Last week my blind daughter, who lives on Merseyside, rang me (in Cornwall) from Liverpool city centre to ask where the Krispy Kreme donut kiosk was. I knew, but couldn't quite explain it to her so I rang KK's customer services to see if they could tell me what shops were nearby so my daughter could use that info to locate the kiosk. Their computer was very slow so they gave me the kiosk's phone number, which I relayed to my daughter. This was a triumph as she was able to buy a peanut butter donut which was a 'special' that day. These things matter.

In reverse my daughter keeps me up-to-date with my own town's local news, way before I see it on my phone, most memorably when my friend's seafront hotel was on fire years ago and I had no idea!

Can remember in 1990 arriving home with a couple of my children to bmet with anoth on telling me theyw er bombing Bagdad, and we sat in almost disbelief watching this actually happening. Managed to get everyone to bed, then inthe early hours of the morning received a phone call from my eldest, telling me that he, and other students at his uni were now at the local police station where they ha been taken after being out painting anti- war slogana. Offered to drive direcly up there, but he said they were okay, just wanted to let tme know, and i told him how proud I was of him.

Great Mizuna!

My worst phone call from a child - 3am. Son rings. "There is a domestic in the downstairs flat. Should I ring the Police".
I asked who lived there. "Man and his partner". Sons says he cold hear screaming and what sounded like plates being smashed. He thought they have had rows before, but perhaps not as bad as this one.
I said yes, ring Police. Dont tell them that you have rung the Police.
Police came. Things settled down.

The worst phone call I've had is from my daughter who in her 20's was travelling around Thailand, 'Mum, I've had my bag stolen with my passport/papers, purse and all my money in it'.

Thankfully she's now back home and her wanderlust years are behind her

Phew, I'm thankful my daughter's problem was only donuts!!!!

Daughter phoned me when she was 18 to say that she had gone to a festival on Brighton beach and her boyfriend had forgotten where he had parked the car. They actually phoned the police after 4 hours of searching. They were told to keep walking the streets and they will probably find it ! 2 hours later they found it up a random residential street where they had parked it. Don't know what they expected me to do 60 miles away !

A call from 22 year-old at a German airport on day 1 of a long- planned trip:
"Mum, I've just missed my plane connection to China because I forgot about the time difference and went to the toilet for a poo thinking I had an hour to spare".

About 30 years ago, DS2 rang me from Barcelona. His wallet had been taken from the back pocket of his jeans while he was in a phone box. Just an invitation to thieves, you'd think. It was, of course, Mum who had to cancel his bank cards. Now he has his own teenagers...

Daughter phoned from London while she was a student at UEL.
"Mum, what is po tash?" After puzzling over this, I asked her to read the text to me. "Oh," I said, "I think you mean pot ash." She had been reading and re-reading the page without making any sense of it at all.
Suddenly it all made sense. How we laughed!

I remember seeing the Bali bomb news on TV knowing my son was there.. then I had a call from him saying they had been in the same street but had gone to another bar.. such a relief

I once phoned my mum in the middle of making dinner because I remembered her putting eggs in Welsh Rarebit and I couldn't figure out whether I should or not. It was her own special version and is jolly good! I think I might make it again soon!

We have division of labour in our family, my daughter rings me for anything of an emotional nature, she rings her father for everything technical or practical and I ring her for all sorts of advice especially anything to do with travel or medical. Her father never asks anyone for advice as he's a complete know all, like most men! She's travelled very widely but only tells us of the problems she's encountered after the event, for which I am extremely grateful! The only time she did keep in contact during a real problem was when she was trying to get out of Sri Lanka before they locked down during the pandemic, she managed to get on the last plane out of Bandaranaike airport. It was a very worrying time.

Not me but a former colleague's son, phoning her at work from a couple of hundred miles away in a student house.

"Mum, we've accidentally set the kitchen on fire. What's that number you have to ring?"

I remember years ago DD2 being out with her boyfriend in his car when it got a puncture. BF was surprised when she suggested calling me to change the wheel rather than her father. In our family I was/am the practical one so the job was quickly done.

In his first week at uni, son No. 1 rang me to ask how to cook some trout he had just bought, because the student cookbook we had supplied him with didn't cover that!
(Needless to say, he was out to impress a girl.)

Son No. 2, when he was at uni, would regularly phone from a supermarket saying what he wanted to cook (such as lasagna) and would keep me on the phone as he went around looking for each ingredient in turn.

Fortunately, the Internet soon replaced me as the go-to for such things, and both sons are great cooks these days, making most of the meals for their families.

The worst was on Friday. My daughter rang me to say next door house was on fire and they had to be evacuated from their home at 3 am.Best was when the 2bd phone call was that they were safe and little damage to their home. They owner of the house on fire had set it himself and was watching it and chatting to my sil like it was normal.

I will never forget the phone call from student DD in the 1980s to say that she and her travel companion were stranded in a remote part of Turkey, their airline had gone bust, and DD was suffering from chronic diarrhoea. Sort that one out! DH and I managed to find another airline and booked them on a flight to London the next day. We were nervous about whether this would work out and phoned the airline the next day to confirm that they were on the passenger list. A man replied and said he was not allowed to reveal the names of people on the flight...... "but I don't think you should worry Mrs L". I could have hugged that man then and there.

Mine is completely gifted with certainty, i.e., she is never wrong.

My DD rang me one morning when I was in Istanbul to say there was no hot water in our house and she couldn't have a shower before work. Not sure what I could do from that distance. Half an hour later DS rang to say he had found the switch to the immersion heater which was only used in emergencies!

One of the best calls I ever had was from DS who said "Mum, do you remember M - a girl I'd briefly met some months previously? Well I've realised I really like her and I don't know what to do!"

After advising him to organise some outings for groups of friends and make sure she was invited, I wasn't sure what else to say, but grateful to be asked advice.

Well the advice worked and a few years down the line they are happily married and have given me two lovely grandchildren!

Nowadays I'm more likely to be phoning my kids for advice, especially when I have issues with technology!