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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Apparently there is something wrong with me!

204 replies

Furrydog7 · 16/07/2020 20:34

I hate the house phone with a passion. I much prefer texts and emails as i can answer when it is convenient for me. However my mum thinks that there is something wrong with me as i have the house phone unplugged a lot. She doesn't understand that i don't always want my time inturupted by people talking crap about what they have had for dinner etc and the only way to convey to certain members of my family that i cannot talk is to unplug the phone.

OP posts:
notangelinajolie · 17/07/2020 00:17

We have to have a landline because mobile signal in my house is pants. It's either that or stand at the bottom of the garden and let the whole world hear the conversation. We don't live out in the middle of nowhere - we are just in a signal black spot that covers our house :-(

teazle · 17/07/2020 00:18

I much prefer using my landline. Better sound quality on the call (but maybe that's due to dodgy mobile reception here). I also don't like giving my mobile number to people unless they are friends or family.

IceCreamSummer20 · 17/07/2020 00:30

Totally true OP.

My Ex DP unplugged the house phone as his ex wife used to call regularly, he was too scared to tell her to her face to stop. It was massively intrusive.

jessstan2 · 17/07/2020 00:51

'House phone' sounds funny, it's usually called the 'land line' here.
I never use it these days but I do her it ring occasionally and check for messages. I have a couple of people who prefer to ring there because it costs a bomb to ring my mobile (they don't have them), so I ring them back.

I hate texts except for brief reminders, that sort of thing. E-mails are great but if you need to talk to someone urgently, a phone call is much quicker.

Blackbear19 · 17/07/2020 01:29

@StCharlotte

How would you have coped 40 years ago when there was no email or texting and you couldn't unplug your phone?

I think people are becoming so insular these days and I'm not sure It's healthy. I say that - it's only on MN as far as I can see. I don't know anyone IRL who thinks like this.

Go 40 years before that and people just didn't have phones. Not everyone wants to be contactable 24/7.

We do have a house phone, rarely used except by parents.

Topseyt · 17/07/2020 01:34

Mobile signal is very shaky round here and drops in and out regularly, which is infuriating.

It means we have to maintain a landline with a phone because otherwise we would have to often go out of the house and down the road quite some way to make or receive calls.

I’m happy with WhatsApp calls on my mobile though, and text or email.

wombat1a · 17/07/2020 01:36

Still got a house phone, it's the #1 phone here as text messages can take 12-24hrs to arrive/send. 95% of the time our mobile phones don't have signals.

So if you want us you have to call the land line.

Blackbear19 · 17/07/2020 01:40

@Casschops

I love having a house phone, now im working from home I can answer all the scammer calls and wind them up. I swear at them, repeat their questions back to them really slowly, go silent and tell them I fell asleep and blow whistles down the receiver. Such good times.
Wind them up but please don't blow whistles down the phone line. The poor sod trying to earn a living on the other end doesn't deserve to have their ears damaged by it.
MulticolourMophead · 17/07/2020 01:56

I have a landline for emergencies. The only people who have that number are me, DD and DS. So I know any calls are likely cold calls.

So I do have a bit of fun, sometimes. I don't use a whistle, though.

Purpleartichoke · 17/07/2020 02:11

When we built our home over 10 years ago, we didn’t even bother putting in phone jacks.

betteliefsen · 17/07/2020 02:13

I'm in my 50s and can't remember the last time I used one. I don't use a phone either at work or home.

Italiangreyhound · 17/07/2020 02:37

Lots of people feel the same, my sister is one. I have to accept if I want to talk to her I message and ask when she is free to chat. I can't just call her and expect her to be free.

It's not unusual and I accept that she prefers things like this. Tell your mum it's very common.

www.bodyandsoul.com.au/wellbeing/why-you-hate-talking-on-the-phone-according-to-a-psychologist/news-story/30bdcf55238170a9ed512f2e31c8c9ce

Thanks
GhettoDefendant · 17/07/2020 02:59

I'm 35 and moved out when I was 19. Never had a single landline phone in my life. Why would I? My friends all have my mobile number. My mobile is always on me. Having a landline would be like having a second phone... what's the point?

I also have my mobile settings so it only rings out loud if the caller is in a certain list of my contacts (friends and family). Anyone else and it's silent, and 99% of the time ignored.

BoomBoomsCousin · 17/07/2020 03:31

I’m in my 50s and haven’t had a house phone in over a decade. We do pay for a LL because where I live broadband providers aren’t allowed to provide broadband without a telephone line (and a heavy of taxes) bundled, but we haven’t ever plugged a phone into it and I couldn’t tell you the number.

Even before that I used to turn the ringer off and let it go to voicemail most of the tame. It was very intrusive and mainly only used by wrong numbers and nuisance calls. Even then most people we actually wanted to speak to used mobiles/email/voip/chat/etc.

BoomBoomsCousin · 17/07/2020 03:31

*Bevy not heavy

Lowprofilename · 17/07/2020 03:46

This reply has been withdrawn

This has been withdrawn by MNHQ for privacy reasons.

SarahBellam · 17/07/2020 06:39

I’ve never really thought about this. I have a landline, but couldn’t tell you the number and we get about 3 nuisance calls a day and that’s it. I’m going to unplug it today!

Fizzysours · 17/07/2020 06:55

The cat chewed through ours six months ago. It does not seem to have adversely affected our life chances. Tell 'em you have a new broadband deal that does not include a landline.

Ginfordinner · 17/07/2020 07:21

@Yeahnahmum

Do those things still exist 😂
Hmm We still have a landline because the signal and sound quality are better, and I am not welded to my mobile.

The scam/nuisance phone calls have dried up, and I get far more "you have had an accident" calls on my mobile than on the landline. Like Zanda we also have a landline for back up/emergencies.

StCharlotte · 17/07/2020 07:52

@Fizzysours

The cat chewed through ours six months ago. It does not seem to have adversely affected our life chances. Tell 'em you have a new broadband deal that does not include a landline.
One of our cats chewed through the line while DH was talking on it!

A new phone arrived from Amazon less than 24 hours later.

As an aside, I'm guessing part of it stems from a decade in the country with appalling mobile signal. The village was also prone to frequent power cuts. We ran a village post office so if the power went, the alarm company would ring and if we didn't answer the police would arrive. We even had to replace the electric portable phones kindly left by our predecessors with plug in phones. It amused me how many of our customers hadn't and were surprised when "even" their phones wouldn't work in a power cut Hmm

Justaboy · 17/07/2020 11:40

Telemarketers?, heres one of the best:)
Enjoy!!

IAintentDead · 17/07/2020 12:00

A lot of ageism on here.

The only reason I need mine plugged in is because my daughter, who only has a mobile won't talk to me on my mobile. She says she gets a better line on my landline.

No one else uses it ever.

pigsDOfly · 17/07/2020 12:04

A lot of ageism on here.

It's MN, there's always a lot of ageism on here.

janinlondon · 17/07/2020 12:11

Our signal is non-existent on our mobiles. And I have free international calls on my landline...

Ginfordinner · 17/07/2020 12:12

@pigsDOfly

A lot of ageism on here.

It's MN, there's always a lot of ageism on here.

Yep.

Some of the youngsters on here simply can't envisage what it is like to live somewhere with a less than perfect mobile signal, poor sound quality on a mobile because of said signal, power cuts and not needing to carry a mobile around all the time because a landline ring can be heard all over the house.

We will always have a landline for broadband anyway.

However, I will gladly have a landline, which rarely gets used these days, so that I can live where I do Grin