I use to go 4-6 weeks without talking to my parents for over 10 years.
It wasn't because I had problems with them or I didn't want to talk to them, I just found myself being busy so I would not contact them or I would forget to. And as parents, they wouldn't call because when they would call I would just talk about how busy I have been. I didn't realize that by talking about how busy I was, I was making them feel as if they shouldn't call me. So they wouldn't.
I got use to not talking to them, so I would not think about it. But from time to time I would think to myself that this is not right. So I would tell myself, "Josh, this week call mom and dad". Guess what happened? I wouldn't.
I would get busy again and I would forget about it. It wasn't until I heard a podcast by Ben Bergeron and he talked about how he has a scheduled call every week with both his parents. It occurs weekly because it's a re-occurring scheduled event.
I started this over 3 months ago and it has been so great! Even just calling and talking to them for 2 minutes has been great. Every Monday I have a call scheduled with my dad and every Thursday I have a call scheduled with my mom. They don't know it's scheduled but it's scheduled in my calendar. I also make sure not talk about "how busy I have been".
What this is doing is allowing me to connect with my parents even more. It's allowing me to make time for the people I love. You can do this with anyone you care about. Connect with the ones you care about and love. Make it intentional. You are not wrong for scheduling weekly touch points. You are being realistic because we can easily be distracted or busy that we forget to reach out.
Connecting is vital to our health. Go schedule a call with someone you want to talk to weekly that you don't already. You'll be glad you did.
Regards,
Josh Melendez
