Are you ALWAYS available if school calls?

[m0therofdragons]

School secretary has been on the phone with a question about dd (age 7). Nothing major but she was really rude because she called both dh and I on our mobiles and my work phone which my manager answered and took a message.

Dh and I both happened to be in meetings.

We both called the school back about 25 minutes after they initially called. The third contact wasn't tried.

Usually I'm contactable. Her argument was I didn't know what the call was about and it could have been an emergency. My meeting was in a&e as I'm hospital management so if dd was being ambulanced in I'm in the right place but occasionally I have to go to other hospitals for meetings which could take me up to an hour and a half away. Less than once a month.

Do all other working parents work within 5 minutes of school and have their mobile on at all times?

I can, but i dont imagine many parents can answer everytime.

I think she was rather rude to you.

Definitely not, she was rude and unrealistic!

I can...but I know I’m an exception and not a rule

Surely if it isn’t a major emergency, schools should accept that parents aren’t available there and then

I’m a teacher and I keep my phone on my desk (on silent) so yeah technically I can answer if needed. Funnily enough they rang me today (I was in a meeting) to say my dd was poorly, but my dh collected her as he was off.

I work half an hour drive from school and if I'm seeing a client, or in a meeting, wouldn't answer my phone. If it was an emergency they could call work landline and get a message to me

One of us is yes, they phoned me today about the new classes for my 8 year old and I’d just got up after night shift.

I’m a nurse ex is police so if I’m at work he’s off and vice Versa so always someone there.

OH is a bugger for leaving his phone in random places so he is not reliable. I wasn`t today in hairdressers, back of shop no signal at all. I am mostly though.

If I am at work I don’t look at my phone until lunchtime. DH tends to be available but might not answer if on another line.
Our school are sensible though and understand parents work.

Definitely not, neither me not partner. We’ve had occasions where both of us were a couple of hours away. Really difficult but can’t be avoided due to jobs that require travel.

Once they called while I was on a business trip in Poland. I explained I couldn't pick up ds (nothing major, just under the weather) but called dh and dmil until I could find someone to collect him. Dh is main contact but sometimes they automatically call me as I'm mum.

No, I’m a single working mum. Sometimes I’m in a meeting. It happens.
My ex is often out of contact for weeks. The only time the school rang him, he said no and told them to wait for me to call back
They don’t bother with him now. But they are generally nice and not at all unrealistic.

I was dealing with a mental health patient with a complaint. It wouldn't have been appropriate to answer my phone during that 30 minute period. Feel like I've been told off for not prioritising my dc. I work full time but am at every assembly, sports day, school fair volunteering etc yet they seem to expect me to sit at home awaiting their call.

No. I check it regualrly and try to remember to wear my apple watch at work so i know of it rings but I am not glued to my phone.

I also work in school and ring lots of parents every day. I would not expect them to be available to speak to me immediately. As long as I can leave them a brief voicemail that's fine. If a child needed to go to hospital someone from school would go and we would keep trying all of the numbers for as long as it took.

I am but I know I'm very lucky

School never rang me at work when I was in the UK which was just as well. Every year DD would bring home a piece of paper with our details on it and a firm paragraph or two about the importance of those details being accurate.

Every year I sent it back telling them to make a note of my maiden name and to ask for me by that if I was at work, as they would get no recognition of my married name. Every year this was ignored.

Ask to see their policy on supporting working parents.

I was a sahm for years but even then I'd occasionally miss calls if I had no signal/didn't hear phone in bag/was in the gym etc. Once I got a call to collect a sick dc but was in a neighbouring city an hour away. It's just not realistic to expect to have immediate contact all the time.

I’m a teacher so no - I can’t access my phone during lesson time.

Luckily I now work in the same school my dc go to so I could be contacted if needed. But this wouldn’t be possible if I worked elsewhere.

I’m a SAHM and I’m not always within 5 mins of school and available to answer the phone.
I don’t live within 5 minutes of the school for starters. I also don’t sit at home all day every day just in case the school call!

And if I’m driving, for example, I’ll let a call go to voicemail and deal with it once I’m safely parked somewhere.
There’s plenty of legitimate reasons, work or otherwise, why a parent may not be able to answer a phone immediately. She’s being unreasonable to expect that. And rude to tell you off about it.

No because I work in a school and I'm not aloud my phone on me. If my dc school would listen to me about calling my work instead of my mobile they might actually be able to speak to me.

A good 95% of the time, I work on my own and unless it was a major meeting I would answer.

Collecting dc could be an issue as I cover an area which is massive and could be up to 100 miles away.

I wonder if she'd have said the same if she'd reached DH first

nope.
I don't always have the phone with me and cannot always answer immediately even if I do.

Ds's school is an hour away, I live in an area with poor mobile reception and ds isn't allowed mobiles at work so we couldn't get there in 5 minutes and if I am out of the house I may not return the call for a while.

Usually me, however one time I was having an MRI scan at 11am so couldn’t answer so the secretary bombarded DH with calls about a £1 donation for non uniform day that I’d forgotten to give DS.

Unfortunately for the secretary DH was away with work in California so it was 3am and he was fast asleep! Needless to say she got a mouthful off him, which I then had to smooth over with flowers and a bottle of wine!