To not answer the phone after 9pm?

[Verycold]

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

I wouldn't call anyone after 9 pm unless it was urgent.

I screen all calls with caller display anyway so I only pick up if it's convenient.

As for 9 pm being the middle of the evening-not if you go to bed at 10 it isn't.

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

Always told?! You mean more than one person said this? Sorry, but that really made me laugh!!

To the person who asked was the point in having a landline if you use your mobile-Broadband?! I would love not to pay line rental though-I pay £26 a month landline and only made £5 worth of calls for the whole quarter!

We have virgin for broadband, no landline needed. I hate the phone except to text so suits me!

After 9pm (or before 8am weekdays, 9am at weekends)) here would have me raising my eyebrows at DH as it would either be one of his uncivilised lot or else someone has been rushed to hospital. Would answer it for this reason.

Also - no calls on a Sunday unless emergency, and certainly not between hours of midday and 2pm. I always feel apologetic if I have to ring someone on a Sunday.

This is an unspoken rule that I was brought up with. DD (12) doesn't get it though, as she expects everyone to be constantly available, as she is.

Most of my friends call after 8pm & a couple ring after 9pm. I recognise all of their numbers on caller display. No-one usually rings after 10pm although we might still be on the phone then.

My mum always rings within 15 minutes of my walking through the door after the school pick-up, when I'm either running around sorting out the dinner or trying to have a cup of tea with my DS. She knows it's inconvenient because I've told her. Caller display means I can ignore then ring her back when it's a little more convenient. Usually it's just for "a nice chat" by which she means telling me all the gossip about people I don't know and am not very interested in

We don't answer our landline and I would be very pissed off if it rang after 9pm and it wasn't an emergency.

I go to bed around 9-9.30pm. DP and I are up between 5-6am six days a week and we value our sleep. People on here will say that 9pm is stupidly early for adults with no children but DP has a busy, manual job and needs all the sleep he can get.

After 7? Are you like 80? Most of the country can't speak til after that because of work or kids!

After 9? Yup my mums rule too.

My landline exists only for sky. I ignore all calls completely. It's for documents, banks (fuck off) or cold callers. If u want me use my mobile. Which everyone inc family do because it's 2014 and that's what 'civilised' (or normal ones) people do now.

Texting is fine after 9 tho.

My pil ring for a massive chat around 9.30. It pisses me right off as its normally when the kids have finally settled and we have put on a film or something.
Dh won't tell them of course.

ashtrayheart we're with Virgin too and we're told we had to have a landline for the broadband otherwise the charges would be astronomical. How are you managing to do that? As I said, we don't even have a phone plugged in any more so would love to get rid of it completely.

Depends what your lifestyle is. For me personally, my son has a disability which means that I am pretty much "doing" him until around 9.30pm. After that, I slump and need to relax. A bath/shower/TV/book...whatever. I'm disinclined to answer the phone after this time.

i ignore the landline all the time, it drives my mum insane :)

Everyone in our house ignores the landline at all times.
Anyone who needs to contact us have all of our mobile numbers.
Never missed anything important yet and we've been ignoring it for years.

I think it's 10pm but I don't have a landline. I go to bed at 9ish but it is to read or watch a programme so I wouldn't mind someone ringing up to 10pm. I wouldn't answer at any time though if I didn't feel like it!

Off topic - like the username ashtrayheart - are you a placebo fan?

I have a policy of not calling people after 9pm. It's as much to do with the fact they could be winding down watching TV as they might be in bed. I have a friend who always calls at 9pm, just as (sod's law) the only TV programme I want to watch has started and if I miss the first few minutes I haven't a clue what's going in. I screen calls and will let them go to voicemail if I don't want to talk right then. My mobiles get switched off at night which is just as well when I get twats calling my work mobile at 2/3/4am!

"Who goes to bed at 9?!"
Normally I go to bed at 10.30pm/11pm, but I have been known to go earlier than 9pm if I'm shattered. I go when I'm tired enough to sleep rather than when the clock tells me to.

My landline has not been working for about 3 days and I am in no rush to get it fixed.

I have my mobile (on silent) if anybody really needs to get me. It is bliss

Michael McIntyre did a really funny sketch about this. It

Can't get link to work but type" Michael McIntyre phone" into google and it come up. Hilarious. It's not polite to call after 9 according to him.

I never ignore a ringing phone, most of our calls are after 9 as that's when the DCs are in bed and we can chat in peace. We know amongst our friends and family who goes to bed early and who is happy to talk later on and it's not a problem. We are night owls ourselves, it's rare for either of us to be in bed before 11.30, 9 is mid evening for us, I'd rather chat on the phone than watch TV any time, that's what Sky+ is for.

This is so funny! I thought I was the only one who had this rule! I get the funny feeling in my gut when the phone rings after 9pm and before 9am. Have had the serious illness, death in family quite a few times so that's where my brain takes me at that time of the evening. I always check the time if I'm going to phone anyone.

My family use the land line so I answer it. However, I ignore my mobile as no one I want to speak to uses that!

DH hates it. I don't mind at all, but then no-one ever rings me except my mum and thats only every few months.

DS is not in bed until 8.30 - thats a very short window to make calls in if I can't call after 9pm.

I've always considered up to 10pm fine unless people have very small children or I know they are in bed early. I don;t know any adults who don;t work shifts or have very small babies who go to bed before 11 ish. And if I ring when they're doing something they say "I'm just watching this film, can I call you back". Its not tricky is it

I think I'm a product of my age when calling and speaking would have been considered politer and sending a text quite abrupt and rude!

I never ever answer the landline, in fact I unplugged the phone about 6months ago, I only have a landline for broadband. DP thinks it's the worst sin ever not to answer a ringing phone, I just cannot be bothered with marketing calls. Anything important comes through my mobile or the Skype app on my mobile.

After 9pm I wouldn't hear it anyway, I like my music on at the time of night.

Yup, 9pm is agreed as the latest casual call time here too. DH and i had a convo confirming this again a couple of days ago.

MIL, on the other hand, gets up around 11am and doesnt go to bed till gone midnight and has form for ringing/texting at around 10pm Weekdays or weekends.

When she rang for a chat a couple of months ago at 10 past 10 and woke us up after we had gone up for an early night (i was 8 months preg and DH was just knackered) DH told her grumpily it was late and he'd speak to her the next day.

When she rang at 10pm and woke our 5 week old up last weekend he was actually pretty pissed off and wouldnt answer. He's since hinted to her that late calls are not really on any more. Wish he'd just tell her straight!

yet another thread i should have but cant be arsed

Does anyone else get that cold shiver when you hear those words: just ringing for a chat. My most dreaded words.

The older I get the more phone-phobic I get. But thinking about it, I have always felt a little bit this way. It's just that it's been growing over the years to the point now where I just cannot be bothered.

Part of it is laziness and the hatred of sitting there, arm raised to the ear until it cricks. Part of it is annoyance that most folks who ring seem to like going on and on and on for up to an hour at a time. FGS - say what you need to say and get the hell off the phone!

I have caller ID and do ignore it a lot these days. But it makes me feel anti-social and I am a bit ashamed that I am not one of these bright, breezy and garrulous people who love nothing more than a good natter of an evening.