What is proper telephone etiquette? When I call my mother in law, after I say who I am and ask how she is doing, she never asks back, never says glad to hear from you, merely goes "uh-huh" in other words, what do you want? It bothers me enough I avoid calling. How should I handle it?
Hi, My name is XXXXX XXXXX X am your Etiquette Expert. Thanks very much for your question. I can understand why this frustrates you. With respect to your question I would strongly suggest that you do not stop calling your mother in law. This won't solve the problem. There may be many factors affecting her behavior such as how long you have know her, how she regards XXXXX XXXXX as her daughter in law, other things going on in her life that may be worrying her and how she reacts to you in person vs. on the phone and whether these are different. Regardless of these factors I feel it makes sense for you to persist and see what you can do to engage her into respond to your questions and become more conversational. I would suggest approaching this as follows: