Teenager here, worried about my mom amd hence here. What should I do?
Background: 19M attending college in a different city for the past 1 year. Family of 3; Mom, Dad and me; 6yrs ago were in a joint family setup. Mom is nearing 50.
So, rn in my second year of college and I am back home for a small break of 4 days. Today, I overheard (or eavesdropped) my mom talking on the phone with my mausi, basically, her sister and there's where my problem comes from.
She was talking about how she has no friends left, from either her school time, college time and society "friends" are very polar to her liking. She talked about how she has been facing nervousness (anxiety) for the past few months and haven't had a good night's sleep. To top it off, my grandfather, her father in law, passed away a month ago and this has also set her back. Now, since I'm in college, I don't stay at home and dad also leaves for work and comes at night. In between, from what I understand, she has no one left to talk with, or go out with. And I realize this is a huge problem, coz now I get how bad loneliness can be, after going to a new college in a new city when you have noone. I, for this 4 days, will try my best to spend time with her, but what about after that?
I can call her everyday, but those 5min talk won't do much. After all, I am her son, and she can't share everything, can she? In friends, we can confide. Son, ke samne toh we have to appear tough and all. I also get that Dad, should also start spending less time in office, and there's a fault of his too, but then, how much can she talk to my dad.
Up until covid, we were in a joint family setup and hence there was no issue of loneliness (yes, concerned about loneliness of my mom). We shifted to a different home, 6 yrs back (no separation or nothing) and everything was fine. 2025 last year of school and suddenly shifted to a new city for college and in the back of my mind understood there was going to be this problem, and today after overhearing this convo, confirmed this.
I am extremely worried, and I have no idea, what or how to deal with this and, hence this post. She was really sad while talking on the phone, and I couldn't bare it and still can't.
Posted Sep 11, 2026, 3:22 PM UTC