Sheesh - I guess I am living proof that you are never to old to get upset by your mother!
We have been living in Bahrain for three years, and have gone back EVERY Christmas. I phone my folks once a month, plus birthdays etc, and it's always a LONG and EXPENSIVE phone call. My folks phone for our birthdays. (Have forgotton our Anniversary two years running).
When we left South Africa my In-laws bought a computer and a web cam so they could stay in touch, so we chat online two or three times a week.
My Mum talks to my Mum-In_law and then complains that they never hear from us. The first year I was back, we set up a Yahoo account for them, took them down to the local internet cafe etc (they ARE both computer litterate - they both retired within the last 2 years, and both used PCs every day when they were working). They NEVER once logged on and sent an email.
Last year we BOUGHT THEM A LAPTOP - so all they had to do was sign up with an ISP..... Did they???? Nope!!!
Their excuse - it looks "ugly" set up in the study, and it's too much trouble to take it in and out of the cupboard!
Now their satellite TV provider offers a TV-based email service. They are doing a special offer at the moment - for around $15 they will come to your house, set up all the software you need on your TV decoder, and GIVE you a wirelesss keyboard etc to type your emails and send them from your TV. So I text my Mum on her Mobile phone and tell her about it. Her response "That could be the way to go, but we're not ready yet"
Now I know my entire holiday in December will be dominated by her trying to spend every second with me, and making me feel guilty that we are still not back in SA (Bearing in mind that when we moved from Scotland, she only went back twice in 10 years - the rest of us not at all - and the next time I saw my cousins etc was 15 years later when I could pay for my own ticket!
Sorry to rant, but it's like my Mother is a Travel Agent for Guilt Trips. (And being an only child does not make it any easier)!!!
We paid 30% towards the cost of their retirement home (they wanted to upgrade to a "better" neighborhood and couldn't afford it, so we gave them the money); plus we have a holiday house on a golf estate which they use at least once a month (they go for a long weekend). Last time I spoke to my Mum I said to her "will I be able to borrow your car when I'm there in December" (it's a 1992 Toyota), and she says "I dont really want anyone driving it, because I am thinking of selling it".
It all feels so one-sided and unfair, but if I confront her about it she just has a "breakdown" then my dad begs ME to apologise!
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When I don't get a response, obviously, there's no point in writing again.......right? My other cousins live in the same area my cousin *who responds to me* lives, so they see/talk to her often, and she tells them about my emails and how we're doing etc. Later, when I talk to them on the phone *again WE are making the phone call.......which I don't mind, but it should go both ways*, and they ask me, why do you ALWAYS email this cousin, and not us? *sigh* If I'm going to email and get no response, I'd rather not email at all........you know? I told them that she always responds, yet I fail to get a response from them and obviously have nothing left to say, until I get that *long waited* response. They insist they're too busy to stay long at the computer, but promise to email me anyway (which they never do). I mean, if they don't want to email.........fine........but don't complain that I email my other cousin who DOES want to email me! It just gets so frustrating! It just gets so frustrating, when you're told to do something, by a person who never does it themself. 
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