Nobody decides to stop opening Mom's mail. It just starts to sit. First it is a few envelopes on the counter, then a stack by the phone, then a bag of paper you are going to deal with on Sunday. By the time the pile is big enough to notice, one of the envelopes has been waiting a while, and you are the only one who knows it exists.
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The mail is a good early warning. It shows you what is slipping before anything else does, and it is quiet enough to catch in time.
What a slipping pile looks like
Watch for envelopes older than a week that nobody has opened. Watch for the same sender showing up again and again, which often means a follow-up. Notice when a letter has a date printed on it and no one knows whether that date has passed. And notice when the pile moves from the mailbox to the kitchen, then to the car, then to your bag, because that means the job has no owner.
Three checks each Sunday
Set a short routine. Take five minutes with the week's mail and ask three questions. Is there anything older than a week? Does every envelope have one named person who will act on it? Is there a clear next step written on the front of each one?
If the answer to any of those is no, write it down on a single sheet and keep it with the mail. The sheet matters more than the envelopes. It tells the next person what the pile is waiting for.
Sort into three piles, then agree on who opens what
Use three piles: open, act, file. Open is for anything nobody has read. Act is for anything with a deadline, a phone number to call, or a form to sign. File is everything else. Then decide, out loud with your family, who opens Mom's mail each week. One person is better than three, because three people will each assume one of the others already did it.
What to do when you find one
Call the sender yourself, with Mom listening if she can, and ask what the letter needs from her and by when. Ask for a copy to be mailed or emailed to you. Write the name of the person who now owns the item on the front of the envelope. If a notice looks official, ask the sender what it requires, and keep the original.
If the pile is bigger than one person can handle, do not carry it alone on a Sunday night. Bring it to the family, decide together who takes the next step, and let the rest wait a day. A pile you share is a pile you can finish.