I think people don’t call home to their parents enough. I’m not a parent, but I think once I have kids and they move out, I’m darn well going to want to hear from them. I think my generation is fairly bad for this kind of thing. We are so caught up in our own lives we often can be bad for forgetting about them until they call us.
My mom’s pretty awesome – she calls me every weekend at some point just to chat about what’s gone on that week. It’s not always a long conversation, if we don’t have anything to talk about, we just briefly say nothing is new, and then say I love you and hang up.
My family is all on Verizon, and we have their free in-network calling, so cost isn’t an issue for me for the long distance. But for some people, their family may not have good cell reception or they may not even have cell phones yet. So rather than waste your minutes, go to Phone Avenue to buy phone cards at an affordable rate. Right now they offer 3% cash back rebate program on all phone card purchases. It’s pretty affordable, especially if your loved ones live overseas.