End the call with “love you.” It costs nothing and you never know which call is the last normal one.

The reason it feels hard has nothing to do with cost. Saying it takes a second, and the awkwardness is only an unfamiliar sound in your own mouth that fades after about four repetitions. Families who do not say it are rarely families who do not mean it, they are families where nobody started. Somebody has to go first, and it can be you.

Try it once at the end of an ordinary call about nothing in particular. If it comes out strange, that is fine and they will not mind. Ordinary calls are exactly where it counts, because those are the ones there are most of.