Mother has a landline phone that announces the caller. Repeatedly. 6X in fact. She will never pick up the phone but yells at it when it rings…”oh c’mon already!” It’s not like she gets a lot of calls, but she will never pick it up and complains when calls come in. Answering the call, disconnecting the phone or voice mail are not options for her…no sireee…just yell at the phone and do nothing. Also has a cell phone that she won’t answer, read texts or use voicemail. I understand her fear of “new” (ha ha) technology but I have shown her many times how to access texts/VM to no avail. Anyone else dealing with this?
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Does Mom have Dementia?
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I'd question if she really knows why she is handling communications this way If she doesn't know, I'd be curious to figure it out.
Oh, just because someone has new phone explained, doesn't mean they get it. Sometimes, they may not be able to process new information.
I might conduct an experiment and set up a regular standard phone with no extra features and see how she adapts to that.
I am curious as to what happens when a family member needs to get in touch....I would think that could be pretty troublesome. Unless she answers because she knows who is calling? As for everything else, I think it’s a lost cause. Especially since she is resisting. Save yourself the grief .... I think the saying that “ you can’t reach an old dog new tricks” might just apply to us humans as well. 😊
If her hearing has not been tested in a while, you might consider having her see an audiologist.
Does she have caller i.d? If a familiar name comes up, would she be more likely to answer the phone? I have a message on my phone that says, “please leave a voicemail. I do not answer a call with no name I.d.” It’s a simple press of a button.
Does she live alone? If so, try explaining to her that if you call her and there is no answer, you’ll have to check on her by coming to her house, or calling the police to do a well-check. “And that would be annoying too, Mom. Because if you don’t answer the door, we will have to break in.” See if that changes her mind.