Thursday, June 4, 2009

Reason #9 Why You Should Leave a Comment

Because I will get it.

When my kids were smaller, I would beg them not to answer the phone unless they promised to take a message IN THE MESSAGE BOOK.
I think they usually meant to, but mostly I would find little scraps of paper while digging around in the pencil drawer, informing me that

"sistr ranbow needs u to call hr emedeately."

Umm thanks.

Who is the message for? Date? Time? MONTH? I'd even take a MONTH for a reference point. But no luck.

Consequently, more than one of our family councils had an agenda item completely dedicated to phone messages, and to making the children pledge NOT to answer the phone unless they were willing to take a proper message, in the little book, and fill out all the little blanks.

Right.

Our next try at getting our messages was to instruct the children to say to the the caller "My dad will be more likely to get the message if you leave it on the answering machine. Would you like to call back and I'll let it go to the machine?" Which was a perfectly viable option, because, really, as a caller wouldn't you rather just call back and infinitely improve your chances of actually getting your message through?

It worked for awhile.

The kids figured out that they could screen calls, and not even answer the ones that they weren't for them anyway. (Hint- 99% of the time it's not for them, so even if they're standing next to the phone, they don't answer it.)

Again, fine.

Except that we then figured out that we all hate checking messages on the answering machine. I've written about it before.

So the Brain set it up for all the messages to come to me as email. I set it up to automatically forward the messages to his email.

So I guess where I'm going with this is that if you ever call my house, I am the only person who ever answers the phone, and if I'm not here, you can leave a message nobody will hear.


No wonder all my friends are imaginary.

36 comments:

Emmy said...

Lol! Too funny!
I am just the opposite, I love checking VM. I even check the called ID log to see if someone called and did not leave a message. I guess it is part of not wanting to miss out on anything and wanting to be part of everything... hmm seems like I might have some issues to work on.

Anonymous said...

I admit it. I'm a call screener. I LOVE my caller id. :)

Jillybean said...

Whenever I call someone and their teenager answers, I don't leave a message because I know it won't get to them.
That happens at our house too. If I get the phone message, it's usually days after it came in.
I would love it if I could get my phone messages sent to email.

Heather said...

So smart. We had a message book growing up, and I think we only needed one my entire life. That's how much we used it.

Dave said...

i prefer electronic communication.

usually, when i think to call someone it's midnight. not a prime time to be chatting about the teacher's quorum activity

Unknown said...

This was a hot topic growing up because our home line was the same as my dad's business line. Phone etiquette was expected and practiced if we wanted to be able to buy groceries. Now we just use our cell phones as our home line and I screen calls-it's even in my message. My mother taught me better. Oh well.

Cole said...

I hate my answering machine...I think it's becasaue I'm then "it".

I'm not the only one with imaginary friends?!?

Heidi said...

Ah! So this explains why my sister, her husband, and her NINE children NEVER answer their phone. It is all making sense . . .

mormonhermitmom said...

If I call my hubby on his cell, I've learned not to leave a message on voice mail, because all he'll do is look at the caller ID and just call me back and say "what."
"Didn't you listen to the voice mail?"
"No."
Then I have to say everything all over again.

Barbaloot said...

We rarely ever answer the phone in our house these days---buy my mom's a maniac about getting messages so it's all good:)

Lee said...

I'm not imaginary. But as far as returning calls, that doesn't happen at my house if the call was for the husband. It's weird. I call people back because I think it's rude not to, but not him. I don't get it. Right now I'm looking at the little blinking light on the phone that tells the hubs there is a message for him. I told him about it. Did he return the call.. NO cause the little light is still blinking!

Wow.. that went nowhere and took a lot of words to get there too. hummm.. maybe I should stick to my sippy cup rants.

Tay said...

You should get a phone with an answering machine that does it out of a speaker. That way you just press a button and listen as you walk about the house/put stuff away/collapse on the couch. Right? (sure...)

Jennifer said...

The only reason we have a house phone is so I can give that number out to people I don't want to have my mobile number. So what would be the point of checking the messages? Right?

Annette Lyon said...

Our problem is that if the hubs hears the messages, he keeps them on the machine--but then it doesn't blink anymore, and HE DOESN'T TELL ME THEY'RE THERE. I can't count how many important messages I've missed because of that!

Rebecca is Thrilled by the Thought said...

Just found your blog. And you are one funny lady! Loveit!

Kimberly Vanderhorst said...

I can't help thinking that people who leave messages with children ought to know better . . .

Anonymous said...

Since I run a business from my home, nobody answers the phone anymore. It's always for me. So, instead of NOT getting messages when I come home, I have about two dozen messages to answer. Sometimes, I think I would much rather just not get the message. You should feel lucky!

Loralee and the gang... said...

My husband used to get so mad when I'd forget to give him messages the second he got home. So if I hadn't remembered until, say, bedtime, sometimes he wouldn't get the message at all because I didn't want to make him mad.

But that's been years since I did that, and now that I read it back, it was a silly thing to do. Or not do. Whatever.

Now when someone calls for him, I just give them his cell number. Then they can choose to leave a VM or not, and I don't have to remember to give him the message.
We just have to have a plan that has 3000 minutes on it . . .
:~D

Yvonne said...

Some days our phone rings A LOT--and most of the time it's not for me. But because I was a secretary--answering and taking messages is not a problem. I may not get paid, but I HAVE SOME GREAT PERKS ; )

I don't think Kyle EVER answers the phone--and for the reasons you write about, I prefer it that way.

Tori :) said...

Pfft. Our landline is only here so we can have an alarm system. I NEVER answer it.

Sue said...

I can't tell you the number of times I heard "Oh yeah Mom, some lady called for you." Who? I would ask, "I don't remember, some Sister or somebody." Oh thanks son, that narrows it down to Everyone I Know, when was this call? "I don't remember, maybe a few days ago." So I agree with the comment that if you give a message to a kid you can forget about it, it will never be delivered. I never even thought of a Message Notebook. I just waited till they all grew up and moved out :)

i said...

i just can't wait for my kids do get older. oh the fun we will have. i am already a delinquent message returner. oh goody!

Small House said...

You must be a fly on the wall at my house! I can so relate to this. ONE HUNDRED PERCENT.
Have a good day.
Sandra

LisAway said...

I certainly remember family councils (sp?) about leaving proper messages.

We don't have a land line so the kids NEVER answer the phone unless we can see it's Babcia or Grandma. My kids have no idea of those "while you were out" or whatever pink pads I grew up filling out regularly.

Salt H2O said...

Our family has a funny solution to this problem:

No one answers the phone because they're too lazy to take a message so if you call my parent's home you ALWAYS get the answering machine.

The Mom said...

My boys won't answer the phone. I check my messages all the time, but when I am home and the phone rings, they will run to me with the ringing phone. I tell them to just answer it, but they still don't. Now, my 4 year old girl LOVES to answer the phone! I am going to have to watch her!

CB said...

TWINNERS!! This is so funny and true!
You just have to get lucky to reach someone at our house. Since our older kids have cell phones they don't answer "our" phone. The younger ones check the caller I.D. and if it is not for them they don't answer it.
We have too many calls on the answering machine to go through so I let them pile up. Now the message says, "Mail Box full please call back another time".
Seriously, people still try and leave a message.
I really do hate the phone. Send me an e-mail!

. said...

You're funny. I haven't even let my kids start answering the phone yet in the hopes that I wouldn't have to deal with that. Too bad I just inherited a teenager that runs to the phone faster than me. Yep - we've got missed calls and crazy messages creeping in, folks!

charrette said...

Our house is ridiculous for leaving messages. I think everyone has just about given up on us for good. But I always get my emails and my blog comments.
And I consider those folks my REAL friends!

Heather of the EO said...

Oh my gosh, this is so funny. I love it. That email thing blows my mind. I don't know if I want to know how to do it...I'd just get all overwhelmed. Good thing you forwarded the messages to your husband :)

Paul said...

Okay, I'm posting this a little late...

I never answer our home phone. It's literally a once-a-quarter thing. And about half of those "once-a-quarters," the person calling will say, "Oh, gosh - I'm sorry. I think I dialed the wrong number." And it's usually a close friend or relative - which is why I chose to answer it, to begin with.

Carrie said...

Oh, good to know... I'll have to tuck that little bit of info away!

Mrs Andy said...

Ah, the phone answwering dilema. My mom just turned off the machine and the ringer most of the time because it was usually for my Dad. She knew that whatever crisis the scouts were having could be solved by someone else in the ward or stake, and she was right.

Thanks for leaving a comment on my blog too. It's nice to see you read from time to time. I don't comment much, but I do manage to get here once or twice a week, and I do look forward to it...especially your Friday Flairs. I always think, "Why can't I find those things on facebook!" :)

Lee said...

Haha, that sounds like me! I can't take messages, so I always avoid answering the phone at all costs.
Come visit my blog sometime. :)

Nancy Face said...

Technically, I should always answer the phone, because one of my five callings is being the official building scheduler for the three wards that meet at our church building.

But sometimes I just don't feel like answering the phone! And if they don't feel like leaving a message...oh, well! ;)

Anonymous said...

At our house the man is not allowed to answer the phone. A telemarketer can talk him into buying anything.