I find mundane habits very interesting, especially how they vary between people. Let's take calling your parents as an example. I cannot imagine going weeks at a time without chatting with my Mom and Dad, but my brother doesn't call home very often. Even Travis and I have very different parent-calling habits. I call often but for short times; Travis calls weekly but for longer conversations.
How do you talk to your parents?
When I call, I almost always talk to both parents, together, on speaker phone. Some people call one parent and only one parent at a time, others call and talk to one, then talk to the other. Do you have different kinds of conversations with one parents compared to the other?
How often do you call your parents?
I consider myself to be pretty close with my parents and I probably call them greater than 3x per week. I typically call on my walk home from work, which is usually around 7:30pm my time, so it's about 10:30pm Eastern. My phone calls typically last 10-20 minutes -- my parents can tell when I get to the lobby of my building because the sound quality improves (no more wind or traffic noise). As a random aside, I have found my headphones with built-in microphone to be really useful in this regard. If I work late and walk home after 8, I don't call. As a result, my parents tend to know if I have a busy week -- they won't hear from me for several evenings in a row. They also know if I call them before 9:30pm Eastern that I'm leaving work early. Some weeks, I call every day in the work week; on some very hectic weeks I might not speak to them M-F at all. But, I'd say it is very, very rare for 8 or 10 days to elapse between calls.
How often to you call other relatives -- siblings, aunts/uncles, others?
I'm not very good about calling my brother, but we exchange either an email or call monthly and we're trying to do better. I don't really talk by phone to any of my extended family.
Do you have any other communication habits with your parents?
I did not really fly much before college, so most of my early flights were between home and Boston. As a result, I tended to call my parents to tell them I was on the plane or had landed -- this had a practical purpose when they were meeting me on one end of the flight. Now, however, I've established a pattern or habit of calling or emailing when I land, where ever I've traveled. I always tell my parents about trips for work or fun and let them know when I arrive in a new city. Well, except that last time I went to Boston and totally forgot to tell my dad, who got a little worried since I stick to this habit all the time... several missed calls later, I reassured him I was indeed fine!
