to think you shouldn't phone a family with three small children between six and say 7.30 pm?

[emkana]

I have a few friends who always ring around this time, when I'm in the middle of eating dinner/bath time/reading stories etc

Two of these friends have children themselves so should know better surely?
One friend is childless but I tell her EVERY TIME "oh can I call you back I'm in the middle of xyz" and she still doesn't get it after SEVEN YEARS

Marina now you are on to something...

I had dh build a shelf high up in the bathroom for the tipple of the bathtime nightmare

I do have 6 children though, i deserve it right?

I read this title as between 6am and 730pm and I thought, well gee, that's a bit anti-social isn't it?

lol at shelf

"mind mummy's wine" repeated ad nauseum chez enid

Actually I often ring at this time because I am fairly sure I will find the person in. Let's face it, I am. It's better than remembering a crucial call you needed to make at 10.30pm.

However, I only make very quick calls, of the "are we still on for tomorrow/what's the number of that women" type as no-one has time for a long chat at that time.

answerphones are good.

I hate it when they phone the house, I leave it as not convenient, they phone the mobile, get no answer there, phone the house again, leave a message, then phone the mobile and leave another message, which continually rings back trying to deliver it. There are at least 3 people who do this, one of whom is dp, who thinks it's rude not to jump to it and answer a phone straight away

It's annoying I agree but I tend to ignore them if Dh isn't there. But my poor MIL can't win. She doesn't ring these days until after 9 when she knows all three will have given up the fight. But by then if DH is out I'll be in bed too

DHs best mate always rings at about 10 - 10.30 at night, yes its annoying when the kids are asleep but it guess at least he DOES ring.

I had a friend who would call me at 10.30pm and talk for over an hour until I could make excuses!! She was a mother and childminder so would call me after she'd got her kids to bed and caught up on paperwork/eaten etc. I think calling after 9pm is a good rule but I don't get my kids to bed until 8pm (and then they mess about and use every excuse in the book to not go to sleep until gone 10pm) - and they wonder why they're tired in the morning?? I agree that you should leave the answerphone on and deliberately not call anyone back until you are ready to.

Don't answer.

the first half of the sentence works for me

pmsl @ LGAT and enid

Tis nearly tea time...

turn of all the phones.

my mum does this from time to time, but less and less because she knows we don't pick up at those times and turn the phones off.

I am always perplexed when newspapers print that test on whether or not you are an alcoholic and the first question is "Do you ever drink on your own?" I'm not sure whether the preferred answer I should supply is "yes, of course I do", or "no, I'm not on my own, my pre-school children are usually with me"...

YABU. You don't have to answer a phone! Ignore it and use 1471, unplug it or get an answering machine/voicemail.

Message withdrawn

Enid, "these things" don't "get" to me, they just make a topic for discussion on MN.

Funnily enough I do have an answerphone, or rather 1571, and I do let calls go to that at those times. But I'm always torn whether to answer it because my father is very ill and I'm in two minds whether I should answer because it might be my mother calling with bad news.

Get a phone with caller ident then Emkana.

(sorry to hear about your dad)

fair enough I shall do that

DP's mum always manages to call just as I put dinner on the table, it's quite simple to say, 'Hi, look I'll have to call you back in say an hour? I'm really busy'.

I do it all the time, especially to my childless friends, then when I do call them my first sentence is normally 'Ah, finally they're in bed, I can talk now'.

They understand.

Yanbu.
My flamin in laws always phone between those times and fil will be on the phone to dp for up to an hour going on about their house renovations while they can hear the kids in the background and me trying to do tea/bath/bed by myself. We only have 2 aged 3 and 1. In the past if even if I say 'can you ring back later dp is not home yet and the kids are drowning in the bath' they take the hump then ring back at 6.30 pm the NEXT day!
So last Tuesday the phone rang, their number showed up, we didn't answer it. Half an hour later at 7pm the inlaws turn up on the bloody doorstep! As they cheerily stepped past me into the chaos they announced 'well we rang...!' They usually are a 2 hour drive away but had been to see sil not far from us. Didn't ring us earlier in the day to say 'we might be passing will you be in?' No that would just be too polite and considerate for them. Grrr.
So then they kept the kids up and got them all exited playing tickly games till 8pm well past their normal bedtime, departed, and left us with two overtired kids.
Sorry did I hi-jack? Hee hee I just had to get that off my chest!