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PSA: I just hit 500 unread texts from my parents and it's a real problem
I was cleaning out my phone last night and the number hit me. Five hundred unread texts, all from my mom and dad over the last six months. It's not that I don't love them, but it's a constant stream of forwarded chain emails, warnings about things they saw on TV, and 'check out this link' messages that go nowhere. I'm 32 and trying to run my own business in Chicago, and this digital clutter feels like a physical weight. My dad will send me three articles in a row about the stock market crashing, and my mom sends recipes I'll never make. They think they're helping and staying connected, but it just makes me want to shut down and ignore my phone completely. It's this huge gap where their idea of communication is volume and mine is about actual, you know, talking. Has anyone else found a way to set a boundary here without starting a huge fight?
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noah5177mo ago
I feel that "digital clutter" thing, my mom's texts are basically a news ticker for conspiracy theories lol.
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sarah5317mo ago
My mom's texts used to be like that too, @noah517, until she found a gardening group.
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haydeng476mo ago
I used to get annoyed by my mom's constant texts about plants and weather warnings. Setting up a weekly phone call changed everything for us. Now she saves up her stories for our Sunday chat, and the random texts have almost stopped. It gave her a set time to connect without flooding my phone all week. Maybe a scheduled check-in could work for your parents too. It turns the volume down without making them feel ignored.
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