The art of keeping in touch

Published by Emma Lee-Potter in on Tuesday 11th June 2013

IMG_1950I was staggered when I read that the average family keeps in touch via 1,768 texts, 520 emails and 68 hours of phone calls a year.

It sounded like an awful lot so I scrolled through my phone to see how my own family measures up. I didn’t think we’d be in the same league so it was quite an eye opener to discover that in the past week me and my daughter have exchanged 58 texts, sent 30 emails and spent five hours on Skype. That’s before I add in the texts, emails and phone calls to my husband and son. I mean, I knew we all liked communicating but I didn’t realise we liked it that much.

Actually, trawling through the texts is like reading a diary of the week. In the past seven days my daughter’s sent me pictures of Paris in the sunshine while I’ve texted her  images of the horror that awaited me when I pitched up to collect my son from university . He told me he’d been packing for hours but with a mountain of washing scattered across the floor, assorted bike bits and mismatched items of china and saucepans it looked like a scene out of The Young Ones.

We were so exhausted by the time we’d cleared his room, taken a load to the local storage depot and packed the car that we had to drive along the coast to beautiful Caswell Bay to sit in the sun and calm down…

PS. It’s also been revealed that nearly half of all families use modern technology to communicate while they’re in the same house. Whoops. I’m guilty of that one too, largely because we live in a tall, narrow terrace and my children’s rooms are on the top floor. I can yell my head off that it’s time for supper but neither of them ever hear me. So what do I do? Text them, of course. I don’t bother with long-winded messages – just type SUPPER in capital letters. And yes, it works every time.


4 comments so far

  • With a husband who is often away from home it is not unusual for us to be ‘chatting’ on instant message while watching the same thing on TV but from different countries. Add emails and video chat and we are probably quite high users! However at home I have to shout as we are the mean parents who haven’t yet agreed to get a mobile for the 12 yr old.

  • I’d hold out on the mobile for as long as possible, Jacqui. I think the volume of emails and texts between me and my daughter could be down to her being in Paris this year. Although it will probably be almost as high when she’s back in London! She’s coming home today!

  • Oh, this made me smile. I text my husband when I’m in bed to put the bread machine on (I always forget). We live in a tiny house with no insulation in our rickety floors, but if I shout I know he’ll shout back and probably swear. If I text, he never seems to be as cross.

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