{"id":1050,"date":"2019-07-29T05:15:11","date_gmt":"2019-07-29T12:15:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nebulous-oyster.flywheelsites.com\/blog\/?p=1050"},"modified":"2020-01-25T15:54:01","modified_gmt":"2020-01-25T23:54:01","slug":"its-time-to-teach-your-kids-some-phone-manners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jennifermargulis.net\/its-time-to-teach-your-kids-some-phone-manners\/","title":{"rendered":"It’s Time To Teach Your Kids Some Phone Manners"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Is“Hello?”<\/p>\n

The young man on the other end of the line sounds annoyed.<\/p>\n

He might as well have said “What do you want?”<\/p>\n

I’m so startled for a second that I don’t answer.<\/p>\n

“Is L. there?” I ask in my most well-mannered voice.<\/p>\n

“No,” he answers thickly.<\/p>\n

Then there’s silence.<\/p>\n

“May I leave her a message?” I ask after a pause so long that I can hear myself breathing.<\/p>\n

“Yeah,” he answers thickly.<\/p>\n

Then there’s more silence.<\/p>\n

Though my almost\u00a0twelve-year-old<\/a> can sometimes be monosyllabic, I’m not exactly sure what to say. This is beyond not having proper phone manners. The silence is stonewalling.<\/p>\n

Then it strikes me: the boy on the other end of the line doesn’t actually know he’s being rude.<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Should I just ask for two kid tickets for the movie?” my 10-year-old asked when I sent her to the movies<\/a> with her brother<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It seemed like a silly question.\u00a0Of course she should ask for two kid tickets!\u00a0Duh.<\/p>\n

But it wasn’t: Athena<\/a> had never gone up to a movie kiosk, asked for tickets, handed someone money, taken the tickets, and gone into a movie.<\/p>\n

Why should she have?<\/p>\n

There’s always been a grown-up there to do it for her.<\/p>\n

If your kid doesn’t have proper phone manners or any practice speaking on the phone and answers calls in monosyllables, are they being rude?<\/p>\n

Yes!<\/p>\n

\"DoesBut is it their<\/em> fault<\/a>?<\/p>\n

No.<\/p>\n

It’s our fault as parents if our children are rude on the phone and have bad phone manners<\/strong><\/h3>\n

It’s our fault as parents if we haven’t taken the time to teach our children proper phone manners.<\/p>\n

Most children don’t know better.<\/p>\n

And we parents forget to teach them.<\/p>\n

But it’s not hard to teach a child phone manners.<\/p>\n

We need to teach them to say:<\/p>\n

“Hello, this is A. Is B. there please?”<\/p>\n

“May I please ask who’s calling?”<\/p>\n

“Just a minute please.”<\/p>\n

“I’m sorry, she’s not available. May I take a message?”<\/p>\n

Adults are impressed by children who are polite.<\/p>\n

It’s annoying to call someone and get stonewalled by an impolite child on the other end of the phone.<\/p>\n

Now, if you would please be so kind as to pardon me.<\/p>\n

I must excuse myself to go do some role playing to teach my kids some proper phone manners.<\/p>\n

Published: November 10, 2011
\nLast updated: January 25, 2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Hello?” The young man on the other end of the line sounds annoyed. He might as well have said “What do you want?” I’m so startled for a second that I don’t answer. “Is L. there?” I ask in my most well-mannered voice. “No,” he answers thickly. Then there’s silence. “May I leave her a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":11073,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":""},"categories":[8275,4],"tags":[6182,6181],"yoast_head":"\nIt's Time To Teach Your Kids Some Phone Manners — Jennifer Margulis<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"It's important to teach children proper phone manners so they know how to answer the phone and be polite when someone calls your house.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/www.jennifermargulis.net\/its-time-to-teach-your-kids-some-phone-manners\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"It's Time To Teach Your Kids Some Phone Manners — Jennifer Margulis\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It's important to teach children proper phone manners so they know how to answer the phone and be polite when someone calls your house.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/www.jennifermargulis.net\/its-time-to-teach-your-kids-some-phone-manners\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jennifer Margulis\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-07-29T12:15:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-01-25T23:54:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/jennifermargulis.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/photo-of-a-red-phone-courtesy-of-Negative-Space.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2250\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1500\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@JenniferMarguli\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@JenniferMarguli\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":[\"Person\",\"Organization\"],\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jennifermargulis.net\/#\/schema\/person\/4f4b9f697431bff90dbf687b6ae55ccb\",\"name\":\"andrew.bolsinger@gmail.com\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jennifermargulis.net\/#personlogo\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/jennifermargulis.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/favicon.png\",\"width\":200,\"height\":200,\"caption\":\"andrew.bolsinger@gmail.com\"},\"logo\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jennifermargulis.net\/#personlogo\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jennifermargulis.net\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/jennifermargulis.net\/\",\"name\":\"Jennifer Margulis\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jennifermargulis.net\/#\/schema\/person\/4f4b9f697431bff90dbf687b6ae55ccb\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":\"https:\/\/jennifermargulis.net\/?s={search_term_string}\",\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.jennifermargulis.net\/its-time-to-teach-your-kids-some-phone-manners\/#primaryimage\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/jennifermargulis.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/photo-of-a-red-phone-courtesy-of-Negative-Space.jpg\",\"width\":2250,\"height\":1500,\"caption\":\"Is it time to teach your kids proper phone manners? 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