u/Cautious_Alarm2919

They used to have the best coverage and a fair price, but now it feels like worse coverage and a ripoff of a pay scale where your stuck in expensive plans you don’t need just to have coverage.

My friends on cheaper plans with other telco lately have coverage when I’m struggling. I live in a CBD so it really shouldn’t be a problem.

Convince me to stay/go

Editing to add: currently not on a plan and planning to get a new iphone/plan bundle. I do have a medical condition so always felt Telstra was the safest bet, but have had many instances in the city and surrounding areas where my phone has been a brick from their crappy service.

If so, did it work?

I was diagnosed in 1998, at 8 years old, and was offered the “cure” of having half my mum’s pancreas implanted (onto my pancreas I believe).

The thing is is wasn’t guaranteed to work and I would have to take medication for all my life to not reject the organ whether it worked or not and my mum would then have higher chances of getting diabetes herself. I basically heard “do this surgery and you could have even more medical problems”

Insulin and diabetes seemed totally livable (and was) and having the surgery didn’t feel worth the risks… but I’ve never heard of this since.

Has anyone else heard of this?

(My mum is disappointed that I didn’t choose this and is also forever angry that the cure is still 5 years away lol)

It’s the only thing that’s stopped me from going full Aldi, but my Woolies Metro is getting rid of the coffee, the occasional free coffee in the dire economy is the only thing that’s stopped kept me going.

The signage implies it’s just my local, but I have a sneaking suspicion it’s going to be across all of them.

Is anyone else’s Woolies Metro getting rid of their coffee, or is it just mine?

Hi, I’m Im hoping this doesn’t come across as rude. I’m (36F) genuinely worried about my mum (65F), whose temperament and awareness have shifted a lot over the last few years. My dad (74M) keeps telling me it’s completely normal for women her age, but I’m not so sure.

My mum has always been sweet, if a little detached, and very focused on responsibility and doing things “correctly.” Her temper used to be a long fuse. It rarely blew, but when it did, it came out of nowhere and is the “demon voice” kind of angry. Even when I was a child struggling with health issues, she’d sometimes lose it and throw things at me (a teacup at my head is my worst memory). What’s changed is that the fuse has gotten short. It still comes out of nowhere, but now it’s far more frequent, feels completely out of place, and I always seem to be the target.

My older brother (37M) can do no wrong in her eyes. He puts almost no effort into the family, but he’s a precious airhead (hopeless and needs help) in her eyes, and to her his wife is the villain who doesn’t do enough for him. He hasn’t changed at all, yet his wife gets blamed for all his shortcomings while he’s seen as someone who isn’t being looked after properly. Both of them keep asking about Mum and Dad’s wills and what their assets are worth (living of a tiny inheritance from his wife’s family currently), and somehow his wife gets blamed for that too. Mum will rage about this at me about them, and include me as if I’m also waiting for them to die.

Last year I found out I really shouldn’t have children. On top of that, my partner and I are late starters financially and have decided we can’t afford kids regardless, especially with both of us knowing we have caring for our parents on the horizon, and only a small apartment we’ve just started paying off.

When I recently tried to talk to Mum about this, as I’ve been coming to terms with it, her response was to say she was sorry I was ever born, and to threaten suicide if I didn’t try to have children. My dad called afterwards to tell me I shouldn’t upset my mother. This was an extreme instance, but it’s part of a pattern.

I used to be so close to my parents. I’d call Mum every day just to chat. Now this is how nearly every interaction goes. Sometimes she’ll suddenly turn on me, and it’s not even about what I actually said. It’s something she misheard, or something she’d been turning over in her head that never even happened.

Honestly, I feel like my mum’s punching bag, and like I can’t talk to her anymore. It’s also making me angry, because the whole thing is so disorienting. She goes to the doctor regularly and is a bit of a hypochondriac, so I don’t think it’s dementia or anything like that, but she and Dad don’t appreciate me even raising it. They think it’s rude to suggest Mum has been more confused or shorter-fused lately.

Sorry that was a lot, but I wanted to ask the women here: is this kind of change actually normal with age? Or does it sound like something worth pushing to have properly looked into? I’d really value your perspectives, and I’m just having such a hard time worrying about her but also wanting to protect and stand up for myself.