What's happening in your world?

[Farseer]

It is natural for family that hasn't left home to not need to call...

Ah, but they *do* have a need to still call if they are technically 'still at home' (under your jurisdiction so to speak) but are away attending boarding school, university or school camp or somesuch, 'thul beings. I guess I was trying to differentiate that my two eldest have actually now 'left home' permanently, as of this year (though they would still once call even when they had not 'left home' previously). Our home address is still their 'home' address for most things for ease of mail receipt though.

As for current distances, no, the furtherest one of my immediate family members currently away from me is about 5 000kms. Still, even while 13 800kms away, one of my sons managed to make contact with us. In this day and age, contact doesn't have to come in the form of a phone call.

Also, distance (small or large) has nothing to do with deciding reasonableness or unreasonableness of having a family member call on a birthday. A family member living four kms away with good intentions, a busted car, a flat phone battery, a sore leg or small child and who lives near a broken payphone could find contact far more of an impossible task than a family member who lives 10 000kms away in close proximity to an internet cafe.

As for the one of your family members who did not ring: if they usually ring, maybe they forgot, got caught up with some emergency, converted to the beliefs of Jehovah's Witnesses, were taken by aliens while they were sleeping or, with the good intention to ring you after the movie had finished, they fell asleep during a boring movie, had something more important to do and thought you'd understand OR they merely wanted you to *think* that they forgot and a brilliant gift is winging its way to you as we type.

Few in my husband's family rings him either. The older we get the less it seems to be 'required'?

My initial response was more that I no longer have any expectation regarding anyone in my family ringing or not ringing. If one does not assume and expect, one cannot be disappointed or let down as much.