this post was submitted on 07 Feb 2026
13 points (88.2% liked)
Casual Conversation
3249 readers
96 users here now
Share a story, ask a question, or start a conversation about (almost) anything you desire. Maybe you'll make some friends in the process.
RULES
- Be respectful: no harassment, hate speech, bigotry, and/or trolling.
- Encourage conversation in your OP. This means including heavily implicative subject matter when you can and also engaging in your thread when possible.
- Avoid controversial topics (e.g. politics or societal debates).
- Stay calm: Don’t post angry or to vent or complain. We are a place where everyone can forget about their everyday or not so everyday worries for a moment. Venting, complaining, or posting from a place of anger or resentment doesn't fit the atmosphere we try to foster at all. Feel free to post those on !goodoffmychest@lemmy.world
- Keep it clean and SFW
- No solicitation such as ads, promotional content, spam, surveys etc.
Casual conversation communities:
- !casualuk@feddit.uk
- !casualeurope@piefed.social
- !forumlibre@jlai.lu
- !batepapo@lemmy.eco.br
- !esp@lemm.ee
Related discussion-focused communities
- !actual_discussion@lemmy.ca
- !askmenover30@lemm.ee
- !dads@feddit.uk
- !letstalkaboutgames@feddit.uk
- !movies@piefed.social
- !television@piefed.social
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
There's an art to small talk. A language barrier makes it a challenge.
And that's what it seems your mom is looking for as the foundation of conversation on your end. But, I suspect she's more wanting you to listen than necessarily talk. If you start by asking about her, I suspect that it'll go smoother because you'll input what topics she's thinking of the most and be able to adapt better.
And yes, that does seem a bit narcissistic. But sometimes parents just want us to show we care, in ways that they can grasp easily. I can't call it narcissism in terms of it being bad though. It's just part of the human condition. Parents often want updates on their grown kids, but they've also spent decades worrying about and focused on the kids, so there's an assumption that the degree of interest will point back at some point.
And, up to a point, it should. As we age up, there should come a point when we start looking at our parents as full people, taking an interest in them as more than our support network.
So keep it simple. Ask more questions about what she's doing. See if that helps. If it doesn't, then there's other stuff you can try