Ask Emma

Question: Years ago, we became friends with a family who used to live in our neighborhood. We spent many weekends together, and our kids were in the same school and played together. After these people moved out we corresponded with them and exchanged photos of our children, mostly around Christmas time. Lately, we haven’t heard from them at all, and I don’t know if they just don’t want to keep in touch anymore, or something happened to them. My emails have gone unanswered for a while now. The telephone number is outdated. How many times can one try to contact someone else without becoming a pest?
Answer: Since you don’t know if your friends have received your latest emails, you can’t be sure if they stopped being interested in corresponding with you or if something happened to them. Two unanswered emails are a good indication that something’s not working in your correspondence. Ask your children if they keep in touch with your former neighbors’ children. You’ll be surprised how much they can find out about their long lost playmates and schoolmates just by spending hours online taking breaks between study- or work-related activities. If that fails, take a road trip to see your friends. You are not becoming a pest until you have a definite answer that your friends are well, but not available for you anymore.