to dislike it when I call a friend and a child answers the phone?

[hambler]

Tonight called a friend whose very bossy 10 yo dd answered with "Hello who am I speaking to?"

She has been doing this since she was about 5 or 6.

I HATE it when kids answer the phone. It's not like the call will be for them.

It never crossed my kids' minds to pick up the phone when they were young and I would never have suggested/encouraged it.
AM I alone?
BU?

[Quattrocento]

Mine answer the phone all the time - this is because I mostly can't be bothered am too busy. I think mine have developed rather nice and polite answering manners as a result.

How odd to get annoyed though.

[stitchtime]

my siblings and i have been answering the phone ever since we can remember. in fact, i dont ever remember a time when i didnt answer the phone. and in fact, i dont remember a time when i wouldnt be chatting on the phone. if anything, i wonder why my kids are never on the phone. why dont there freinds call just for a chat?
we were taught proper telephone manners by our parents. answer with hello. get a name from the person before handing it over. never give out y our own name to a random caller etc. we would never have dreamed of saying 'hello, who is this?' and neither will my children.
i think the op is being incredibly odd. but, its her opinon, and of course its a valid opionon

[blinder]

Yes imagine becoming frustrated when people can't be bothered to answer their own phone and instead pass it on to their mini-servants ! How odd!

[MarieBernadetteS]

Take the opportunity to correct her English "... to whom am I speaking?"

I think if the child is old enough to talk on the phone, its a good skill for them to have.

[SoupDragon]

"It's not like the call will be for them."

D2 (8) gets more calls on the landline than I do so I let him answer it. If it p*sses off a few cold callers/intolerant people along the way, so much the better.

[saintlydamemrsturnip]

3 kids 1 severely autistic who can't be left at times. Ds2 and ds3 provide a useful service. Ds2 (aged 7) gets calls anyway. I love ds1 answering the phone - he can't talk so he looks at it for a while, picks it up, listens then puts it straight down again. Works for me - people I want to talk to will be able to work out what happened, orhars well who cares.

When ds2 was about 3 he had the most hilarious conversation with a salesman who thought he was talking to me (I was on the extension).

[MummyDoIt]

I don't allow my DSs to answer the phone yet. They are 5 and 6. The reason why? I had a spate of indecent calls and I don't want my children to hear what I had to hear. I realise that indecent calls are quite unusual but what about wrong numbers? We've had wrong numbers from drunk people and people with very difficult to understand accents which would be very confusing to a small child.

As for people wanting their children to answer the phone because they don't want to, that's what the answering machine is for!

[scienceteacher]

If our phone rings, chances are it will be for my 9-year old, so just as well if she answers it.

[HecatesTwopenceworth]

oh mine rush to pick up the phone and squeal down it! I imagine it gives people quite a shock!

I go over, listen and if it is someone I want to talk to I say "Give the phone to me please", but if it's a callcentre or something, or I just don't feel like talking, I sit back and watch as one or both of the kids do their full noisy-autistic-child routine down the phone [evil]

Oddly enough, I don't get any cold call hard sell phone calls any more. . I think they've passed the word around

[hippipotamiHasLost48lbs]

" Why would a 10 year old answer the phone it is not as if the call would be for tehm"

Actually, my 9 year old ds quite often gets called by his friends. It is either one of the boys inviting him over (weekends and holidays otherwise they arrange it at school) or it is one of the many girls he is friends with ringing up to disect the latest love 'drama'... [exasperated sigh]
I remember speaking to my friends often on the phone at that age.

And I do encourage my dc to answer the phone - it is a lesson in being polite and knowing how to speak on the phone, and take a message if needs be.

OP I think your problem lies more with the fact said child answers the phone in a bossy manner. I think that is what has got your back up.

If not, then you are being just a tad anal

[BalloonSlayer]

"Most of the time its people they know who call and they have a chat."

I can honestly say I have never spoken to a small child on the phone (other than my own when they have been on a sleepover or something) without the conversation leaving me feeling exhausted.

They never say anything without prompting. It's like pulling teeth.

Me: So I'll see you on Friday, then...

Friend: DS, it's Auntie BS, OK?

Me: ...

Friend: Oh can I put DS on? He's dying to talk to you.

Me: Er, OK

Friend's DS: ...

Me: Hello, Friend's DS. Hello darling!

Friend's DS: . . .

Me: And did you have a nice birthday last week?

Friend's DS [monotone]: Yes

Me: Did you get lots of presents?

Friend's DS: Yes

Me: What did you get?

Friend's DS: . . . (long silence)

Me: [desperate]: What was your favourite present?

Friend's DS [at length]: Park

Me: [relief]: Oh you got a toy park, did you? What a lovely present!

Friend's DS: Went to park

Me: Oh you went to the park. Was that today or on your birthday?

Friend's DS: . . .

Me: Umm

Friend's DS: . . .

Me: Can you give me back to Mummy now?

< Long pause and indecipherable muttering >

Friend: Oh he just loves talking to you!!

• and my DCs are just as bad talking to anyone other than us. I cringe on their birthdays when the whole family phone up and have to go through this. I am trying to get them to have a better telephone manner but who the hell can I inflict them on in order to get some practice? Not my friends, that's for sure.

[FAQinglovely]

ahh well I guess my kids are different then - as they do actually enjoy talking to their family on the phone

[brimfull]

I think it's fine if the child knows how to answer phone and get the person you want.

It's fucking annoying if it is a 2 yr old who babbles into your ear.

[MrsTittleMouse]

I don't mind older children answering the phone, but I have to admit that I don't like speaking to younger children. I'm just not a "children" sort of person. My own are wonderful, of course, but I have never been the sort of person to instinctively understand children. So I can deal with a child who is the same age or younger than mine, but any child older than mine is completely alien.

We have our phone too high up for the DDs to reach (my eldest isn't three yet) which seems like the obvious solution to the phone dash. The only disadvantage that I can see is that if you ever fell over and broke your leg you couldn't reach the phone to call 999. Yes, I think about these things a lot.

[FabBakerGirlIsBack]

I don't like it either as I never know what to say and usually guess the wrong child.

The "hello, who am I speaking too?" is fairly okay, if not a little abrupt.

[MrsTittleMouse]

Balloonslayer - I have had lots of those conversations. I have to half-kill myself to avoid DD1 doing the same thing. I usually end up with "why don't you sing a song for Grandma?" which at least breaks the silence.

[jellybeans]

YABU

[BintOfBohemia]

My two year old always answers the phone if it rings and he's next to it. It's a nightmare if I'm in the next room and can't be arsed to talk to anyone on the phone but he picks it up anyway. Sometimes I don't even hear it ring and I'll come in and find him telling some pain in the arse poor telemarketer about night garden or sommat. Serves 'em right I reckon.

I sometimes wonder how many calls we have that I know nothing about, he's often taken calls, hung up and told me an hour later.

[FAQinglovely]

no there is a downside - they never shut up - and will strike up embarrassing conversations in the supermarket queue about what other people have in their shopping baskets

[4andnotout]

YABU
My dd's will answer the phone for me if im indisposed and hopefully ask who is calling so i can avoid outlaws.

[2shoes]

yabu

[FAQinglovely]

have to confess it's sometimes a welcome relief when they demand long conversations with someone else rather than me (even if it is the snooty looking woman in the supermarket queue who obviously thinks children should be seen but not heard )