Being Loyal To Parents From Afar Via Consistent Communication

If you are like me, you have at least one (living) parent whom you don't live with and with whom you try to keep consistent communication. And if your like me, you also see that as a must for as long as you and said parent are both alive.

In this case, the parent is my dad. We mostly communicate via email. If I go too long without writing to him, he takes it personally, and for me to hurt my parents' feelings violates one of the Ten Commandments in the Judeo-Christian faith which is to honor one's mother and father. Whenever I violate that, I feel horrible.

Something my dad has asked me to do is write to him at least once a week. That is what I am trying to do. I have come to the conclusion that, in order to insure that I fulfill that "once a week" rule, I should do it on Saturday, and then it's done, and I won't have to think about it. Since I'm involved in some volunteer work at a local thrift store on Saturdays, I have decided that, barring unusual circumstances, I would write to him as soon after I came home as possible. However, if he lapses in how often he writes to me, I will not hold it against him.

Fellow Accommodites, I ask you this: do you have at least one parent from whom you live far away? Is there any reason not to write/call them? If not, is there a day in the week for which you could make sure to write/call them? For the sake of your relationship to said parent(s) I advise you to keep it a priority to maintain regular contact with them, be it written or phone lest they think you have forgotten them. But don't hold it against them if they fall behind on their contact with you. After all, an Accommodite's concern is how his/her actions affect others rather than the other way around.