I am leaving ......

I'll leave that up to you... OK OK I am guilty of that also. But if I'm watching a program, it's because I want to hear the program. And if I want to have a conversation, I'll turn the TV off. Or wait until the commercials...

Hey gabs! That was a great fake out on your daughter! Nice going! But, one question before I go on! What about Gissi? Where does he go for the Holidays? If you go to your Daughter, does he go? Or does he have to go to a .....? He is welcome here with Star & Luna! They would be thrilled to have their little friend to help get in trouble with! We all would be thrilled to have the sweet little guy! I just don't know if you could just maybe send him as a gift so he doesn't have to go through all that quarentine stuff... Anyway, should we be expecting him? And when would that be? Star and Luna are so excited right now they are rolling all over the rug! Please don't make me disappoint the little guys now! Gissi, Auntie Leslie has some wonderful Christmas Goodies for you....

KIDS! No I would have answered you right. She should know if she wants you to bring somethingand what day for you to get there. and if they want presents or money! She must have reall been in to that program!

LOL - I don't watch the Program so am sure I would have responded differently - now if you and the sweetie were coming to my house I would be saying come the sooner the better, don't worry about gifts having you here is enough, I'll cook dinner but thank you for offering :) Seems she could have at least said, Mum can we talk about it when the Program is over? I love what you did to get her attention :)

This is such a familiar scenario. My husband is home most of the time while I am at work, so he chatters on when I get in from work, and i do have the unfortunate habit of literally tuning, or I call it ,zoning out. i do it at work during my breaks - i can open a book, and turn my ears right off. but regarding answers you could have given your daughter, bless her, 'do you need me to bring anything'-------you could have said, I can bring 10 pound of uncooked tripe and a sack of turnips, plus all of the aunts , uncles cousins , in laws on your fathers side. 'arrive 23rd or 24th'------- well actually i will be up next week in plenty of time, plus all the aforementioned relations. 'out for dinner or cook ?'-------- yep fish and chips and loads of salt and vinegar. who wants to cook ? ' do you want presents or money' ------ well both will do, gold and diamond jewellery plus a subscription to caravan monthly. joking apart, your daughter is happy you are coming up for christmas and wants to make you feel as relaxed as possible, that is why she is 'leaving it up to you'. I must say though, i would rather eat my own hair than watch 'I am a celebrity - get me out of here'. i dont need to watch it , i hear all about it at work ! its a bit early, but have a great christmas !!

Hi Gabs, At least you got her attention in the end, last night hubby came fro work and was talking about what happened at work but I didn't hear a wor he said as I was watching I'm a Celebrity "Get Me Out of Here", no one would get my attention when I am watch that as its only on for an hour, if he wants to talk to me about something that I have no interest in, so he can tell me about it when the programme is finish, but he got the hump and went uptaires, lol! love and hugs. Tamara

At first I was rather confused you know…the answers sound typically like my 10yr old watching TV or hitting the keyboard and as much as I wracked my brains and thought it over (reading and thinking)…Gabs daughter is not a child, she’s a lady so wassup??? LOL this is so funny and cute…some kids never grow up and remain a child inside at least for their mums…to them, mum knows the best what she wants to do so lets leave the decision to her…so unlike the children I read about here who’re very very precise in their interactions with their parents… Right now I’m feeling so happy that you’re going to spend the season with your daughter…there’s festivity in the air and everybody’s looking to spend the time with their loved ones!

Gabs, I try to avoid all these programmes, I don't like the ones which are designed to make fools of people or demean them. I think that these are an insult to intelligence, and part of the 'Dumming Down Britain' reason. How far north are you going? all the way back to my own country perhaps? Anyway I hope you (and Gissi) enjoy Christmas, and you get everything 'Your Way' Is it my imagination or were you expected to cook Christmas Dinner yourself (if not dining out)?

Well, it all depends. She was watching a program & I wonder if you could have waited until it was finished? Then again, is this normal behaviour from her? If yes, I would be tempted not go at all. Its hard to say, because I dont know the background & how your daughter usually is with communication.

well until yesterday my mom was coming here for christmas for the day but now she thinks she wants to have it at her house! the thing is, i am sure it will change between now and then too. crazy!

-giggling- You almost had her there, gabs. I've been accused of doing this many a time with hubby or my own daughter if I'm reading a book or chatting online or even on the phone. Worse thing is, I don't even recall having the conversation when they ask me about it later. I finally flat out told them if they are asking me questions or need to tell me something important to give me a good shake or something to wake me outta my 'trance' and face them. Also, I don't hear that well so if I'm not looking at the speaker, I usually don't hear what they are saying. It just comes out all garbled or mumbling.

Depends on what program I was watching.....if it had been a program about male strippers I might not have even answered you at all...just padded the seat next to me and ask you to join me! LOL.....just kidding....my kids do the same..especially my son! LOL

Nope...I would not & do not watch anything while I'm on the phone with someone so there would be no way that I'd be distracted while making plans with you. I know how that can be tho. I would have after the 3rd...."I'll leave that for you to decide", I'd have told her to call me back when she could focus on planning with me.

Well, I am kind-of guilty of this, but so is my husband. If he is playing one of his video games, he will ignore everything around him unless a bomb goes off right next to him (and I'm not entirely sure he would notice then, but I am not inclined to test this theory, either). If I want input from him about anything, then I know to wait until he is done unless it is something very important, especially concerning our little one. However, if I am myLotting, he feels that I can just stop every other minute to talk or look at something or a million other things that can wait until later. I have to keep reminding him that he had his time on the computer uninterrupted, and this is my time so please let me have it. The same with T.V. shows. We agreed a long time ago that we would only watch T.V. together and limit it to after a certain time of night, so that we had time to do other things and not get "stuck in a rut". We both have to agree on the programs that we watch, but there is some compromise on both our parts. If we are watching something that we both like, then discussions get limited to during commercials. If we are watching something that he likes but I just tolerate, then discussions are still limited to during commercials. If we are watching something that I like but he just tolerates, though, then discussions occur every few minutes because something or other reminded him of a funny thing that happened at work, etc.

Not sure what program she was watching, but it surely was distracting her from you. I hope you have a good time making all those decisions.

This is really annoying but I am guilty of this at times. Sometimes, its really bad timing on my mom's part or may be mine's. But then, my mom knows that I am doing something really serious, still she would come up with some queries that might be kept on hold. But, I can understand how my mom must have felt on those occasions. I am sorry and thanks gaby for this discussion. Love yaa.

Well Gaby, if I didn't know how much Mel cares about you, I would be upset with her. YOU are more important than any TV program! However, since I know she cares deeply, I'll make excuses for her and say that all that matters to her was that YOU would be there. Anything else didn't matter: she just wanted YOU. Would I have answered like that? Yes and no. I would have said "Gaby whatever suits you. Just make sure YOU are here. Nothing else matters. Surprise me!"

If I'm on the phone, I don't have the TV on - or at least I have it muted. But if I want to watch the show, I tell the person I'll call them back - but normally the person is the priority...

I answer to this type of behavior would be to do nothing, then when questioned as to why I did nothing just say I asked for your help because I couldn't make up my mind on my own, you didn't offer any help so I felt you were not interested. Sure there is going to be confrontation and maybe even some tears, but this may be the cost of getting the respect you want and need. Habits like these are formed most of the time in teen age years but can continue until one party brings it to the attention of the other that this is no longer acceptable behavior. Blessings

Very sneaky of you, Babs! That is the way of it for me, too. The kids will ask me for lunch or something similar, or I will invite them, and each question gets the standard: I'll leave that up to you, Mom. Lol. Karen