Phone calls are torture

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I live in the UK for a few weeks now and my mother, who's in Germany, insists that we talk on the phone every evening (Skype, so at least it's free).

And it's terrible. It would be ok if it was just maybe 2 minutes every day to confirm all's ok, but she'll talk for at least 20 minutes. And when there isn't enough news to fill a 20 min conversation, she'll just tell me uninteresting stuff or ask me stupid questions. When I sound even the least bit tired, she'll feel insulted that I'm not totally euphoric because I can talk to her. Plus she'll hear if I'm doing something else in the meantime, like typing on the keyboard, and complain.

It's extremely tiring for me to listen to someone for 20 minutes or more and frankly I just don't want to talk to her that often. We're not even really close. It might sound cold but for me this is just a waste of time.

I never understood this NT habit to have long, boring phone calls just for the sake of social interaction, regardless of whether there's actually something to talk about.

I talk to my mother about once every ten years. That's about as much as I could stand.

I dislike receiving phone calls too. My parents know this, and I talk to them on the phone only for about 1 minute, or even less. Our phone calls are very short, in fact. When other people call me, I try my best to make it as short as I can.

I try to make phone calls short, too.

My NT friend is very understanding--we Skype, but she lets me type, and types back. In fact, she is forced to do that, because she doesn't have a cam or mic, but she doesn't care at all, because she knows I'm more comfortable typing. When we call, we talk for up to a half hour, but she is the most understanding out of everyone I know. I don't have any other friends.

My parents (who may or may not be NT, but probably aren't autistic) know I don't like the phone, and so don't call very often.

In full agreement!

As far as im concerned, a telephone is a tool, not a toy. A phone call should be a simple exchange of information. I have always wondered how the human race got along all those millenia without telephones.

i absolutely hate talking on the phone and dread it. that's why i like email so much. i get anxious and actually afraid every time i have to talk to someone on the phone.

Trouble with phone calls is, there's no telling how long the call can take. I have anxiety every time it rings, because it can totally destroy the day's plans.

Yeah I have trouble understanding people over the phone. Something about the frequencies makes the speech that much harder to process? Any phone conversation that is more than just a quick exchange of information is pretty difficult to handle.

Phone calls are hard enough! Skype, especially if there is any kind of delay, is torture. This led directly to a breakup between me and a girl I knew from a certain European country. But I can't break up with my parents, they had to learn the hard way that I couldn't talk every weekend. Once a month is OK, I have to psyche myself up for it.

you think you've got it bad, I have to answer phone calls for a living.

This is why I don't want to move out of my parents house.

I intentionally try and sabotage the conversations if they go on to long, I got the idea from a scene in Better Off Ted.

I tried to google some methods but I was left with self help books that were being sarcastic, it seems we're the only ones who could actually benefit here.

I want to throw my f****n phone out the window. Every time it rings I get anxious.

I know. I've stopped answering my mom's phone calls. I wish she'd learn to text, but she just... doesn't. It's like she thinks anything technology-related is ridiculously hard to learn, even when it's simple.

Maybe some of your pesky phone-callers could be persuaded to text instead, though?