<p>I had to share this story my husband told me. His friend said that the dean at his daughter's college told them a sure fire way to get a phone call from your child. Send a little note saying something light and cheery like " I was just thinking about you and thought you could use this $100 check". Then, don't enclose the check when you send the letter. You can be sure you will get a phone call as soon as the letter is received! If anyone tries it let me know how it works.</p>
<p>Great idea! I think my phone would ring pretty quickly.</p>
<p>lol, yea I know.. I go to a boarding school and sometimes we kids just get cuaght up in alot of stuff... like friends, homework or personal time.. however I try to call my mom like once every other day.. cause if I dont.. she goes bonkers :D</p>
<p>Would never have worked for my kid at all. In fact, I've offered her $100 for every time she attends the Metropolitan Opera, and have yet to spend a dime.</p>
<p>Last year a girl in my dorm got mad at her dad and refused to call him. After a few weeks of that the dad frantically called Housing saying he was convinced his daughter was missing/ kidnapped etc! So this year we told all the frosh that story and they all realized their parents could potentially do the same so they vowed to call once a week.
We'll see how long it lasts but I thought it was funny. :)</p>
<p>We made a deal with both our D's : we wouldn't call them unless absolutely necessary, but they had to call us once a week, usually on Sunday evenings. D1 stuck to her part of the bargain almost always, D2 is good so far. Seems to work for us...</p>
<p>Hehe, I have yet to call home from school (heading into second year of college). Before my brother went off to college he set up my mother with Instant Messenger and helped her figure out how to use it (I was still around to help with some nitpicky stuff like pictures and file transfers). Now that's the only way we really communicate when I'm off at school. Neither of us really like to use the phone, and it gives me a whole lot more freedom as to when to answer (if I'm in the middle of homework, I'll get back to her when I'm ready for a break). It's essentially free . Not only that, but my dad can catch up on conversations by reading the archives, so he is up to date on what's going on even if he isn't around when she's talking to me.</p>
<p>Maybe the next time your kid neglects to call, try instant messaging them, it might work better for the both of you.</p>
<p>DD and I Instant Message all the time, sometimes more than once in the course of a day if something unusual happens that she wants to tell me about. Since she habitually leaves long involved away-messages that lay out her entire schedule for the day, sometimes I don't even need to talk to her to know what she's been up to. I used to e-mail her with questions/information, but now I just send her an IM whether she's home or not, and know that she'll find it waiting when she returns. God bless the internet, that's all I can say! Sometimes, in the middle of an IM session, she'll call because she just has too much to tell me and doesn't feel like typing it all out - I always get a kick out of that. </p>
<p>DS, on the other hand, tries to stay off-line as much as possible. He says that as soon as he signs on, he gets swamped by friends who want to talk, and he generally doesn't have a lot of spare time for that. As a result, we usually talk to him by phone once a week or so. I still send him e-mails, and every now and then he'll respond in kind, usually saving up several to answer at once. How ironic that my computer-head son is less likely to communicate by computer than his much less computer-literate sister!</p>
<p>..."DS, on the other hand, tries to stay off-line as much as possible. He says that as soon as he signs on, he gets swamped by friends who want to talk.."</p>
<p>Same thing with my S, so he set up a separate name that was just for us to use without getting bombarded. I works...</p>
<p>laxmom- also, several IM programs have something called "deadaim" where you look like you're away even if you aren't. I use it, and only people who I talk to on a regular basis ignore my away message to let me know what's up.</p>