another mother related panic.
This time I got a message that she couldn’t change channels on her tv, but not to worry, she’s just watch that one channel she could get, oh and by the way I’m off to put up new curtains.
Cue me frantically trying to persuade her that I would put the curtains up for her and sort out her tv again.
The tv problem was easily evident when I got there. She’s pressed the wrong input select button on her remote. A simple press of the “TV” button enabled channel changes again.
The distance between us is starting to become a real problem in my eyes. There are simple things to sort out, that would be easy if I lived round the corner, but a 90 minute car journey precludes that kind of thing.
The problems of being an only child manifest themselves in a myriad of ways.
She’s really suffering woth gout at the moment too, which means that getting out and about is almost impossible for her. My concerns about her are growing evermore each day.
I really don’t know what the solution is going to be: she won’t contemplate moving closer to us, and I can’t relocate my job, leaving us at a real impasse.
This year, life seems to be dealing me quite a nasty hand, and I’m still non the wiser how to play the hand I’ve been dealt.
Godzilla Roars 
I know what you mean. Mother lives about 25 minutes one-way from me, and if I’m in town working, it’s an added 10-15 minutes to that. The worst part is getting her to understand that she doesn’t need to call me with an urgent call in the middle of work if urgent means that she can’t get a certain channel on her TV, but that urgent is when she’s deathly ill and needs medical care. Somehow she doesn’t call me then. So frustrating. And being the only child certainly makes it more difficult. Especially since we have spouses and children of our own to take care of. Someone said that we’re part of the “sandwich generation”. Taking care of our parents while still taking care of our own children.