Dad left a voice message for me yesterday afternoon asking whether we were still coming to stay at his house this weekend. This after me having asked him twice about 2 months ago whether we could come, only to get the standard, “Let me talk to Lorraine and I’ll let you know.”
We talked about it afterwards, and he, as usual, said that “it was OK” and that “we’ll both do better next time.” He is pitiably pathological in this regard: I did nothing that needs to be improved.
Nevertheless, I miss him and Lorraine and genuinely want to see him. Everyone is happier when we have seen each other. So, I’m going to start treating making plans with him the same way I treat following up on sales prospects: Contact them regularly in an attempt to meet your goals, and don’t let up until your goals have been met. Even after that point, I will confirm plans.
We’ll get to test this out with Christmas.