facebook + parents

My dad turned sixty today.

My dad created a facebook account for himself a few months ago. Today, my brother and I caught him signing onto the site to read his wall; the expression on his face told us that he was overwhelmed with what he'd found. He was very confused (yet delighted) to find that his friends had left birthday greetings on his wall. However, he wasn't sure how everyone knew it was his birthday. We tried explaining to him that facebook reminds your friends about your birthday, but he didn't believe us; instead, he was convinced that they had all remembered his birthday by chance (which is unlikely, seeing as to how none of these people had ever called him for his birthday in past years).

My mom, who had sitting in the living room, overheard our conversation. She walked over to us, wearing a slightly concerned/hurt face, and asked why nobody had written on my dad's wall wishing her a happy birthday back in November. She suspects that it's because they like my dad more than they like her.

She doesn't have a facebook.

She didn't like the explanation my brother and I tried to give her, and eventually, things got too complicated to explain, and she exclaimed that she wanted to make her own facebook account... but then my brother managed to talk her out of the idea.