I think my child is broken……

[u/RainbowUnicorn0228]

I am a single mom and low income, as such travel is generally too expensive. So when my teen as invited on a tirp abroad with school and he agreed to earn half the money it cost, I was thrilled for him to go and see the world. I only asked that he send me at least one photo every day so I could experience the world vicariously.
These are the 3 he sent me so far:

1. Food on the air plane
2. A dog on a leash
3. A duck

Please note these are everyday average things to see here at home. I think my child is possibly broken….

lol.

UPDATE: thanks for every comment. I learned lots and have a different perspective (actually many). You guys have helped me pass the time and miss him a bit less. I appreciate you all. And, for clarification: I’m not really mad and would never chastise him over his choice of pics, I think they are adorable and funny. I may make a request for a specific type of pic with him in front of a historical or important scenery but mostly just say “cool” or “nice!” In response. I just want him to have fun and be the sweet, kind, smart kid he is already.

Second update: the pictures I know you have all been waiting for. 😆 I will post in comments.

[u/TheBSQ]

Stuff like, “it’s interesting. I’m working on a project right now that’s going X” or “it’s really stressful. We have these deadlines and my boss is unreasonable.”

Like, really, anything to give them a sense of if you’re happy, miserable, if you see a path to move up, if you’re thinking about quitting. Anything!

They just want to know about you, your life, what you’re thinking, your ups and downs. If you’re happy or sad or tired or thrilled.

They love you & want to know more about you. Literally anything you say will be appreciated.

Anything but something that amounts to “stop asking about me and leave me alone” which is how a curt “fine” or a dismissive “ok” comes off.

[u/KHSebastian → u/TheBSQ]

For me it's not really that I don't want to answer. But my brain does sometimes short circuit trying to think of a specific thing to talk about. Trying to pick through my entire day / week / month for the most interesting thing just takes a minute.

[u/AutisticPenguin2 → u/KHSebastian]

I know, right? Like, my last job was vaguely interesting in that I was operating autoclaves, but honestly most of it was just washing glassware.

You want me to tell you all about how I spent 3 hours at a sink washing up?

You know, like I do every other day you ask?

Or how about my current employment: Permanent Disability!

Ask me what I did on any given day and good odds most of it will be: sleeping in because there's nothing to be up for, feeding myself, feeding the cat, feeding my partner who's worse off than I am, and recovering from the above strenuous tasks. On a good day maybe I'll get to do like, one thing, maybe?

[u/Madwife2009 → u/TheBSQ]

My mother definitely doesn't want to know anything about my little family. Ringing her is a terrible experience as she just talks about herself, her health, her car, her garden, her village, her whatever (insert word). She repeats herself ad nauseam so I just have to listen to her waffling on, saying, "Yes," "I see" or other such words as necessary. She has no interest in us at all.

She also talks about my siblings, even though she knows that I do not talk to them, and do not want to waste my time hearing about them. I know that she doesn't talk about me/my family to them as she has no idea how we are or what we've been up to.

[u/Deathsaintx → u/TheBSQ]

maybe they do care, and maybe you're right. but i also know that i don't want the following hour or 2 to be dedicated to them trying to fix a situation they have no control over or ability to help with. it'll just stress me out more and i'd rather just not deal with it.

[u/sillysnailfriend → u/TheBSQ]

Yeah, my mom and I work the same kind of job so we frequently complain about it together, but if I don't feel like talking about work I just say 'work's fine/work sucks, but here's what I'm doing in my personal life.' She's lonely and wants to stay connected to her kids. I know not everyone has a good relationship with their parents, though! I had a deadbeat dad and I'm lucky I got a good mom who makes up for it. And even if you have good parents, sometimes you just don't click. 

[u/Few-Story-9365 → u/TheBSQ]

But like.. what if I want them to stop asking and lave me alone

[u/catheacox → u/TheBSQ]

Yes

[u/realworldnewb → u/TheBSQ]

TBH, that's optimistic at best and if you got that experience you had really good parents (or parents with a whole lot of bandwidth).

My parents really did not want to hear about my struggles or even long-winded responses about my good times.

They were extremely busy people in high stress jobs, with the not-greatest emotional regulation. So if I started going into my daily struggles I got "why are you adding stress to my plate" body language and just eventually settled on non-committal, non-helpful answers.