Mindless Listening

I am guilty in engaging in mindless listening when my mother calls me." Mindless Listening occurs when we react to others messages automatically and routinely without much mental investment." I know this is a horrible thing but it's very easy to do with the conversations she wants to talk about.  A few days ago she called me just to see how things were going.  This turned into a two and a half hour conversation about absolutely nothing.  For example, she will ramble on about her great aunts sisters daughters cousin which I don't know and could careless how they are doing in school.  When she calls I sometimes will watch TV, write an email and just act like im listening to her by automatically saying things like uh huh, yes, and oh really when I have no idea what she just said.  I'm normally a mindful listener with the people that I care about, but selfishly when it's something irrelevant and unimportant my mind tends to wander.  I think that my mother can sometimes pick up on this behavior but takes it with a grain of salt.  I think I shouldn't take her words for granted as much as I do because one day she won't be around and I will wish she was talking about silly things just to hear her voice.

References:

Looking Out Looking In Chapter 7, page 235