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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To not answer the phone after 9pm?

84 replies

Verycold · 12/03/2014 22:53

It's the one peaceful hour of the day - aibu to want to be left alone?

OP posts:
SallyMcgally · 12/03/2014 22:54

No. You're very wise. If you turn the sound off though, just remember to put it on again in the morning.

rabbitlady · 12/03/2014 22:58

you don't have to answer the phone at any time of day, if you don't want to. and you are very sensible to make 9pm a cut off point.

AnyFucker · 12/03/2014 22:59

Yanbu. I don't answer the landline at all. Ever.

LittleprincessinGOLDrocks · 12/03/2014 23:00

YANBU, but I would be worried it was my elderly relative needing me. So I do answer, but unless it is said elderly relative or life and death situation, they get told its not convienient.

AnyFucker · 12/03/2014 23:00

oops, missed a sentence off. Unless I am expecting the call.

Bogeyface · 12/03/2014 23:01

Actually I fly to the phone after 9!

We have an unspoken rule that you dont ring anyone after 9 unless it is absolutely essential and then you apologise for disturbing them if it is not life or death!

I never bother answering the phone during the day if I dont know the number or it is with held though, as 99 times out of 100 it is a sales call and if it isnt then they will leave a message!

manicinsomniac · 12/03/2014 23:01

I don't know, it depends on a) what your job is, b) how old your children are, c) what your family situation is, d) how many friends you have and what your relationship with them is like

If you're happy and it works for you then YANBU. For me it would be crazy. We don't get in till later than that most nights so I'd never talk to anybody on the phone if I had that rule.

puntasticusername · 12/03/2014 23:13

If the landline rings after 9, me and DH look at each other in horror and mutually enquire "are YOU expecting anyone?".

And neither of us is, because we only know civilised people who ring before that hour.

So it turns out to be either a dire emergency (rare, thankfully), someone with absolutely no sense of decorum, or a wrong number (from someone with absolutely no sense of decorum).

YANBU. It is just not Done to ring after 9pm.

invicta · 12/03/2014 23:15

We're the same, and unless you are expecting a phone call.

whereisshe · 12/03/2014 23:19

No one rings our landline other than sales people so I seldom answer it. I only give my mobile number out, and that's always on silent unless I'm expecting an urgent call. I don't really like the phone.

stillenacht · 12/03/2014 23:21

Ds2 has autism and hates the phone ringing.. It goes off the hook anytime he is around. Therefore the landline is off the hook most of the time.Smile

manicinsomniac · 12/03/2014 23:52

YANBU. It is just not Done to ring after 9pm.

What?! I'd agree if you'd said 10.30pm. Maybe even 10pm. But 9?! That's the middle of the evening. What on earth is uncivilised about 9pm?

MrsWickens · 12/03/2014 23:56

No phone calls before 9am or after 9pm unless it's an emergency has always been the rule with my family so yanbu.

scarletforya · 12/03/2014 23:58

Yanbu.

BillyBanter · 12/03/2014 23:59

10pm is the traditional, omg, who died cut off time in my family.

That said a ringing phone is merely an invitation to answer it no matter what the time.

SallyMcgally · 13/03/2014 00:02

I was always told 9.50 was cut off time, which is weirdly precise.

BackforGood · 13/03/2014 00:03

Well, it's totally up to you, but if my phone rang late in the evening, I'd assume it was some kind of emergency that needed dealing with, so I'd be very unlikely to let it ring - less so, the later it got.

MinesAPintOfTea · 13/03/2014 00:04

We're generally in bed just after 9pm. My mother likes to ring at 9:30pm so I fly to the phone to just be told she "just wants a chat". She is in her 50s and still working, and we seem to be training her out of it.

MardyBra · 13/03/2014 00:08

"We're generally in bed just after 9pm. My mother likes to ring at 9:30pm so I fly to the phone to just be told she "just wants a chat". She is in her 50s and still working, and we seem to be training her out of it."

In bed at 9pm, yet still posting at midnight. What have you been up to for the past three hours?

RonaldMcDonald · 13/03/2014 00:10

I only ever answer my phone when it suits me, outside working hours, not bothered what others make of it
Also I don't need to know if someone died during the night

Bogeyface · 13/03/2014 00:10

Who goes to bed at 9?!

Shift workers and new parents excepted obviously!

Bogeyface · 13/03/2014 00:11

Also I don't need to know if someone died during the night

Charming.

TheBuskersDog · 13/03/2014 00:13

MinesAPintOfTea, what's the fact that your mum works got to do with it? I assume most people in their 50s still work. Confused

HootHootTootToot · 13/03/2014 00:13

I don't answer the phone much at all. I really don't answer it in the. Evening unless I recognise the number or are expecting a call. If there were an emergency the would call back or call my mobile.

It's not sociably acceptable to call after 7 let alone 9 Confused Unless close family or there is a proper reason.

MinesAPintOfTea · 13/03/2014 00:13

I said "generally". DH is away and I cba to walk the 5 steps to bed so am MNing instead.

And we get up at 6 and have a 1year old. I think we're allowed to go to bed any time after he does.