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Behaviour/development

Talk to others about child development and behaviour stages here. You can find more information on our development calendar.

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Original poster

How do you stop a three year old interrupting phone conversations?

38 replies

aloha · 30/03/2005 18:10

Well? Ignoring just causes the volume to go up and up....engaging just continues the noise. It's awful for the person who is on the other end of the line and irritating for me! Alternatively, when do children stop doing this?

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Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

Snugs · 30/03/2005 18:13

Finally solved this one this week when our telephone stopped working and had to get new one.

DS2 (3) now very happy to sit and engage in his own conversation on the old phone instead of interrupting mine.

Never worked when we gave him toy phones, no matter how realistic. He knows this one is a real phone (even if it doesn't actually work).

jollymum · 30/03/2005 18:16

Never, ever. Mine still do it and they know better! Lock yourself in the loo!

emmatmg · 30/03/2005 18:17

God, I wish I knew.

Our almost 6 yr old still does it so I have no idea when it stops either.

maybe a large roll of sticky tape to gag them and tie there hands together would be good.

Blu · 30/03/2005 18:18

Aloha - do let me know when you find an answer! DS drives me MAD over this. I have had some limited success with telling him that I will be on the phone for a few minutes and I will not be talking to him and then when I have finished we will be doing xyz. Doesn't work for incoming calls, though. And when the phone rings, he says 'don't answer it, we're busy'.

Last night I just walked away in a hard, ignoring kind of way and shut myself in another room.

Niddlynono · 30/03/2005 18:21

Do you have loudspeaker on your phone? Sometimes when DS insists on having the phone I put it on loudspeaker so he can hold it but I can still chat (albeit a bit louder than usual and I sometimes have to follow him around the house). This doesn't happen all the time but it does sometimes help.

kid · 30/03/2005 18:22

As long as I let DS say hello to whoever it is on the phone, he is happy to let me chat on the phone. If I won't let him talk, he screams and shouts during the whole phonecall!

DD is 6 and she doesn't interupt.

desperatehousewife · 30/03/2005 18:24

bung telly on!

Twiglett · 30/03/2005 18:25

You can't

But you can start to teach him, by making him say 'excuse me' and every time he does it telling him 'mummy is on the phone, wait till I've stopped talking please'

It is difficult but hopefully by the time he's 5 or 6 he'll have got the message

If you don't do that you'll have kids like one of my sisters who still interrupt (well she interrupts conversation to talk to them) at the age of 13 and 11 (many many family conversations over that one)

WideWebWitch · 30/03/2005 18:27

Aloha, there's a line in the book Bridget Jones's Diary where Bridget's married with child friend calls and says "Hi Bridget, I just called to say MUMMY WILL SMACK! Hello? sorry..." and the conversation goes on like that for a bit. How true! I can't remember when ds stopped doing this. I think I haggled with him quite a lot when he was younger, so said things like 'you've just had a turn talking to me, now you are going to do xyz until abc and then if you do, this will happen' but I think I kept calls shortish. Yeah right, who am I kidding, I've always spent hours on the phone. I think I distracted and bribed and cajoled or made calls in the park when he was with a friend and they were playing and not interrupting. If ds had a tantrum in the streeet and I was ignoring him I could get on and make a nice long call too! Have you got a pinger type kitchen timer? You could try saying you'll only be on the phone until it pings and in the meantime he has to do whatever (engaging toy?) Also, bribery worked for me to an extent: if you let me make this call you can have this chocolate. I had to have it in my hand to brandish though as a reminder. He still does interrupt when I'm on the phone but it's rarer now, much. Good luck!

WideWebWitch · 30/03/2005 18:29

Because the deal is now he's not supposed to interrupt, he must wait until I've finished on the phone. And he pretty much does at 7.

Jimjams · 30/03/2005 19:09

never ever ever EVER thought I'd moan about a child of mine talking. But it drives me INSANE when ds2 does this (ie every time I'm on the phone).

handy for telesales though

swiperfox · 30/03/2005 19:11

My dd interrupts beacause she wants to talk to whoever it is so as long as I let her have a quick chat she goes off quite happily and leaves me alone!!

Tommy · 30/03/2005 19:16

I normally let mine have a chat but when it's something "formal" or the GP receptionist or something I end up sounding like Bridget Jones' friend!

katierocket · 30/03/2005 19:16

the saying hello to the person on the phone works with my DS too but it's hard when you work from home and the person on teh end of the phone is a client! Mostly I divert my phone on days I'm not working otherwise I sometimes run upstairs and hope he doesn't follow me. bad mother, bad mother.

Original poster

aloha · 30/03/2005 19:17

Jimjams....lovely to see you complaining

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Original poster

aloha · 30/03/2005 19:17

And lol at Bridget Jones...I KNOW I sound like that to all my single friends...and they are rolling their eyes at me.

OP posts:

Jimjams · 30/03/2005 19:19

I can't complain for long though Aloha as my mum always says "you'd be moaning if he wasn't doing it".

I even found myself complaining to friends that he "hasn't stopped talking all day".

Whoops

marthamoo · 30/03/2005 19:21

Ds2 insists on talking to whoever I am having a conversation with - which is fine if I'm just chatting to someone who knows him and is tolerant of small children but not so great when it's something official or important.

Oh who am I kidding? No-one rings me except people who either have small children of their own or are related to my small children.

I have no life!

almost40 · 30/03/2005 19:29

I agree with Kid. If you put your child on the phone - enough to just say hi, how are you, and bye bye, I find that DD will then become disinterested and go off and play by herself. It doesn't take but a few seconds, and as long as the other person is willing to indulge, I find that this works best.

Saker · 30/03/2005 19:51

Can relate to this. Ds1 hops around saying loudly "Can I talk to Nana?" without it ever occurring to him that I might be talking to the inland revenue or trying to buy ferry tickets etc (it might say something about how often I talk to my mum ). Ds2 may allow me a little time then comes up and says "Bye bye" repeatedly in the hope I'll get the hint .

WideWebWitch · 30/03/2005 19:54

I remembered just now that when I used to have long phone conversations with dp (before we moved in together, when we were courting), ds used to give me a stern look and say 'Say Bye Bye! Go on! BYE BYE!' He knew how important my mobile phone was at an early age, poor love.

Saker · 30/03/2005 19:57

Seriously, I think it is hard for them (at 3y at least), to believe that there is someone there at the other end. I do try and give warning when I am going to make a phone call and in general that's okay, but it doesn't work when someone rings me. I find that keeping moving helps. So I tend to carry out phone calls walking from room to room . It makes it harder for the children to make eye contact with me and gives the message that I am not engaging with them but with the person who is on the phone.

tigi · 30/03/2005 20:09

my 3 yo bawls if he doesn't get to phone first but if i let him literally say 'hello' and 'bye' he is quite happy and goes off to play!

rogan2001 · 30/03/2005 20:40

my ds 3.3yrs gets on the extension and repeats everything i'm saying to the person on the other end of the phone, so i pass him a bag of choclate buttons and put cbeebies on, that usually gets rid of him.

motherinferior · 30/03/2005 20:42

Bribery? If you let me finish this call you can have CRISPS?

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