I'll move over...you can come sit with me on the "rather get a root canal than call my parents" bench.
My elderly parents make me insane...dry drunk controlling father, super perky denial queen drinking mother. I can usually count on at least a couple of veiled criticisms and one direct insult per phone call...oh and neither of them can hear much so it's all at full volume...and neither of them understand that ten minutes plus or minus is about right...I'm lucky to break in enough to hang up in under an hour.
Oh and I hate the phone anyway.
I felt really guilty about it for a long time, too. But here's the thing: if every time you walked up to someone they hit you in the head with a 2x4, you'd learn to dread that pretty fast. Our response is only rational.
So I used to send email...but now their computers don't work. All I've got left is bribing my husband to call me on the other phone after half an hour if all else fails. Sometimes that works.
So I have nothing to offer but empathy and I'm pretty sure we're not narcissists...narcissists would never call and never care.