Phone Calls, Remote Controls and Aging Parents

My phone will ring some time in the next hour. It will be my Dad. He will be having a problem with his television. He will probably be pretty cross about it. He won't ask me to fix the problem. He will just blurt out "It's not doing anything." It's the same way a pre-schooler announces "I'm thirsty" instead of asking for a drink. The calls started shortly after he and my stepmother moved into an assisted living facility last fall. My wife (AKA Wonder Woman) found a remote system designed especially for this set of circumstances. Via my iPhone, I can see and control my Dad's TV and his Amazon Fire Stick as if I were in the room. I can also look in on him via a camera or send text messages that display on the TV. His primary issues are simple to fix. Sometimes he just has the wrong remote. He only needs the one for the Fire Stick, but he insists on holding on to the one for his Walmart television. They are both small and black. Although they are plainly labeled and Dad can read just…