Your relationship with your parents

[TJ OZ 0]

I get along with both of mine and it probably improves as we go through our life's. I am similar to my father and he is a mentor to me and someone I can look up to. A very honest man who will help anybody. Mum brought up five kids and worked in the family business. Our house was always clean and we always ate well. I am amazed at how she was able to look after us so well. They are happily retired living by the sea but health is the issue now. Its sad watching how the body slowly breaks down.

[Mantas 3]

I lost my dad as a boy. He was a big figure in the local community. Football and surf clubs. They named a shield after him. There are 2 surf clubs that compete every year for the shield.

My mum was left with 4 young boys on her own. She is a legend. She lives near by and I see her regularly.

Now that I'm a parent, I fail miserably when I compare myself to them. The things they did for us was incredible.

[yoroshiku onegai shimasu 2]

I have a good relationship with both my mother and father - better than it has ever been actually and it seems to get more each year. We only see each other for a week or so a year in total, but when I'm in Japan we speak at least once a week on the phone or skype. Skype has been really great in making us feel closer.

[me jane 0]

 Originally Posted By: yoroshiku onegai shimasu

Skype has been really great in making us feel closer.

I second that. I call so much more often now.

[Tubby Beaver 209]

yeah, just waiting on my folks to buy a mic and I'll be doing exactly that

[me jane 0]

I gave up waiting. I skype to their landline, it's so cheap, it's as good as free.

[Tubby Beaver 209]

how do you pay for the calls?

[samurai 0]

I don't use skype, but rather an IP phone at 3 yen a minute. it's virutally free and I can call any phone anywhere. I appreciate that skype is free, but can you call cell phones, and banks, and yada yada? I currently speak to my parents 1-2 times a week and never do we consider cost; 3 yen a minute is pretty cheap for land-line quality.

[me jane 0]

 Originally Posted By: Tubby Beaver

how do you pay for the calls?

You prepay into Skype by credit card. It's 1.7 eurocents a minute to most countries.


Talking of figuring out a way to live in both countries, after I finish my course I want to work in an international school. They get two months off for the summer so we'd be able to spend a good 5 or 6 weeks in the UK each year.

[TJ OZ 0]

 Originally Posted By: samurai

I don't use skype, but rather an IP phone at 3 yen a minute. it's virutally free and I can call any phone anywhere. I appreciate that skype is free, but can you call cell phones, and banks, and yada yada? I currently speak to my parents 1-2 times a week and never do we consider cost; 3 yen a minute is pretty cheap for land-line quality.

Yes you can ring land lines, mobiles, send sms but I'm not sure if it does yada yada. I'm looking forward to Skype tv. Oh and to keep the thread on topic I set my parents up with skype and they love it and use it for most of their calls now. They don't stress about the cost of calls so the old man will actually chat.

[bobby12 0]

I use MSN Messenger to chat to my mum, but I find the sound has a delay which is very frustrating. Sometimes I phone via my phone which is essentially an IP phone (K-opticom) and that is much better.

 

I wonder if Skype would be better quality than MSN messenger - i suspect not.

[soubriquet 0]

Skype isn't seriously laggy. I use it every week to speak with my brother in the UK

[bobby12 0]

Essentially they are both sending data over the network so i cant imagine theres much difference between them. i think the lag is caused by my machine running far away from the wifi router so connection is slow.

[spook 0]

i've been using skype to speak to people in HK, mainland china and the UK (Calling from oz) and it's been more of less perfect most times.

maybe 1 in 10 calls has shite sound. so i just hang up and try again and it works fine.

it's also good for transferring big files

[excuse me 0]

I have a really good relationship with my folks, I suppose especially with my mum. Look forward to spending a few weeks with them every year and we speak every week without fail.

[I'm Sexy 0]

I had always closer relationship with father, but both is good I think. I usually see about once in month or sometimes less often,