(Background: I had my citizenship test on Tuesday morning. More on that later. But for now, just enjoy these emails!)
From: Mum
Monday morning
HAPPY BIRTHDAY !!
good luck for tomorrow.
lol Mum and Dad xxxxxx
From: Me
Monday afternoon
Thank you!
(Did you know that LOL means "laughing out loud"? I am assuming (hoping?) that you thought it meant "lots of love")
From: Mum
Tuesday morning
In MUMSPEAK lol = lots of love. Henceforth, to avoid confusion , I shall sign off ool = oodles of love !!!!
[neighbour] said that on facebook, you said that the exam was easy. I hope that's the case.
ool Mum xxx
From: Me
Tuesday evening
LOL
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Oh well, at least she's actually using email now.
I shall have to have words with their neighbour though, who friended me on Facebook last week... she seems to be telling my parents about all of my status updates, judging by this and other emails and phone calls!
Books I read in October 2024
7 hours ago
My mom once asked me over Skype "Did you see that fun family picture your cousin put on Facebook?" and only after we hung up did I think "Wait, YOU were on Facebook?"
ReplyDelete(She logged in on my dad's account, I guess, or maybe my sister left hers open on their computer)
My parents use lol as lots of love as well. I just use it too now, seemed easier than trying to correct it.
ReplyDeleteLOL! Or shall it be "ey" from now on? ;)
ReplyDeleteAfter 4 years of using email, my father has finally mastered the concept of capitalization, punctuation and paragraphs but has always managed to find a way to sign off on each email in a manner that he knows will make me laugh. The typical ones are "Love from the Oldies", "Love from UNO" and "Love from US".
ReplyDeleteAnd there's no way in hell I'd ever let him loose on Facebook but he and Mum understand the basic concept ... so much so that they often Skype me to ask if I can send the pictures that Cousin #503 has posted of Baby #5 ... even though Cousin #503 lives <5 miles away from them ... which is almost 8000 miles away from me!
Wow, people's parents use Skype? Mine are vaguely aware that I'm talking to them "through the computer".
ReplyDeleteEva, scary stuff! My parents keep saying they'd like to use FB, but as ex-teachers, they're scared that too many ex-students will want to friend them. I haven't told them about the ignore function yet!
Propter, that's a very Zen attitude. I just had to mention it to her though, as "good luck on your test, LOL" sounded unusually callous. I know they didn't want me to emigrate, but still!
SG, I actually started saying "eh?" about 6 months after moving here... still a few months wait for citizenship though, assuming that I didn't do anything stupid and actually passed the test (paranoid, moi?)
PiT, yeah, my Dad is the king of the 2 line, all lower case, very terse-sounding email. And he taught languages...
LOL!11!
ReplyDeleteWow, people's parents use Skype?
ReplyDeleteI had to send my father a VERY long, VERY detailed email complete with screenshots on how to download, install and run Skype ... AND be on the phone with him when he did it ... and he still couldn't do it. One of my cousins finally had to go and install it and show Dad where the "go" button was!
Mum just sits in the background and yells over Dad's shoulder when we're talking ... she refuses to learn how to use a mouse so operating their computer is not an option for her!
Hooboy, having my mom read my FB status updates would be some dangerous shit. She still isn't aware that 90% of what comes out of my mouth in her absence are swear words.
ReplyDeletewell, hope the test went okay - they're a bugger.
ReplyDeleteAh, that's classic! I can see my MIL doing that as well. Thankfully my parents are pretty savvy when it comes to that stuff.
ReplyDeletePiT, that's funny! My parents both talk into the speaker phone over the top of each other, which is actually better than the previous arrangement (telling them both the same things separately).
ReplyDeleteHermitage, I may need to modify my FB usage a bit...
Wayfarer, my personality forbids me from telling you that it was easy and I'm pretty sure I passed. But, yeah, not too buggery, actually.
Mrs CH, good! My MIL just stays away from the whole genre.
I installed Skype for my parents on my last visit there. They needed a new mic for it, and my dad went and bought a webcam, so now whenever I call and they have visitors, they drag the visitors up to the computer room to look at me. It's hilarious. It reminds me of their stories of the 1950s, when only one person on the street had TV and everyone would come and watch.
ReplyDeleteBoth DMac mom and my mom read our FB statuses. It's a problem for two reasons:
ReplyDelete1) We change ours too often because we are both on Twitter, so when my mom asks if I'm better, I often have no clue what she's talking about
2) It can be problematic b/c my mom isn't DMac's "Friend" on FB. So when I comment on his photos, my mom can see them. Well, there were some rather interesting photos of him in drag makeup in December (a friend is learning to be a makeup artist, and he kindly allowed her to "change him"). With the result that my mom saw the photos BEFORE I could warn her. Oops. Wasn't bad though - until my Dad saw them.
Eva, that's awesome! My friends who have kids are HUGE webcam fans, personally I'm wondering how wise it is to let my parents see the messy living room on our regular weekend chats...
ReplyDeleteIS, too funny! Those photos of DMac were quite something. I can only imagine how my Dad would react if he saw Mr E Man done up like that - I think it's fair to say that it would be brought up about once a week!
These are all hilarious stories! I can only add that my dad has been with e-mail from the beginning (being a prof) and will report back each letter I forgot to capitalize and each missing comma, but that my mum can hardly understand that I type my thesis and not use calligraphy just like in the old days/middle ages.
ReplyDeleteSomething else Cath, I was under the impression that "eh?" is not uncommon in the UK either? Why did it take you so long to say it ;)
And finally, HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY!
Nina, that sounds annoying!
ReplyDeleteAnd eh depends on the region... where I'm from it's a flat e sound, like in bed, and it's used more as "pardon" or "WTF?". Here in Canada it rhymes with day, and it's used at the end of a sentence, like n'est-ce pas? (is it not so?) in French.
Oh, and thanks!
ReplyDeleteI just remembered what my old roomie (the one who encouraged me to call the nuns) used to say when I was complaining about my parents' inability to use technology:
ReplyDelete"I'll remind you of this when you're 60 and your kids are frustrated because you don't know how to work the time machine".
what kids? ;) Isn't that another reason not to have kids? I don't want to be bothered with things I don't need when I'm old by some annoying young people!
ReplyDeleteHahaha!
This was a loooooooong time ago!
ReplyDeleteIf anyone ever invents a time machine, I'm learning how to use it, even if I'm 92. Imagine being able to take a creationist back a few million years!
I have browsed privacy setting in FB the other day, and they can be customised in a very detailed way. For example there are exceptions. If you set the statuses to be read by "only friends" you can add exceptions for particular friends, for example you could choose your cousins and parents not to be able to see the. You can do the same with the notifications about pictures, or stories you post.
ReplyDeleteThe example aobut DMac photos - this could be solved if he choose in privacy settings that this photos can be seen by "friends only" and infinite science' mum would not be able to see them.
No need to cut down on FB use - just tweak the privacy settings so that they suit this usage :-)
Hmmmm, interesting!
ReplyDelete