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<p>Fortunately, dad had my back on that one. Everytime some older aunts/mother wanted to call me as incessantly as they did with my older cousins, my father would cite two things:</p>
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<li><p>How those incessant calls caused a few older cousins to flunk out of grad programs because they became too much of a distraction from their studies. It was also a reason why my parents ran interference to minimize the “emergency calls” to the absolute minimum. </p></li>
<li><p>If all the male members of the family can survive months without family contact while doing their mandatory 2 years of military service in the home country…it’s doubtful I’d crumble from infrequent parental/older relation contact in a much cushier dorm at a private LAC. </p></li>
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<p>Factor in long distance costs and the fact my parents both knew I don’t really care for talking on the phone so calling every 2-3 weeks was well within reason. </p>
<p>Moreover, I also wrote snail mail and email letters at random intervals if I felt I had something meaningful to say. While those could be more infrequent…each letter tended to be 2-5 pages. </p>
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<p>I think that may be a product of increasing parental contact/sheltering expected in this generation of college parents. </p>
<p>I was wondering what’s the big deal as even now, I habitually carry no more than $20 in cash…but have plenty of CCs and ATM cards if I need to make large purchases or make larger cash withdrawals.</p>