Saturday, March 14, 2009

An Observation

With all the technology these days I hadn't realized this problem before:

Kids with cellphones not having landline telephone etiquette.

Pookie's cellphone was taken away by her mother this time. I don't know all the details but I'm sure it was deserved. Here at the house of YewNork, we don't have a lineline.

When Pookie is on her cell she rarely talks, 99% of the time she is texting her friends.

Last night while I was driving her and her BFF to a fundraiser facility basketball game at their middle school she asked her BFF to text their other BFF, Kaylee to see if she's going to be there.

As she passed her her own cell, she told Pookie that the other BFF had her cellphone taken away also and that Pookie was going to have to call her at her parent's home phone.

Pookie dials and I hear, "Hi, is Kaylee there?" "Umm, okay, bye."

"Who answered the phone?", I asked.

"Kaylee's mom", she said

"I thought you loved Mrs. P."

"Yeah, she's so cool."

"Then why weren't you using good manners with her?"

"What do you mean?"

Then I explained how I would have felt if one of her friends didn't say ," Hi Mrs. F., how are you....or Hi Mrs. F. is Pookie there?" At least acknowledge her, I explained.

It never occurred to her, or to her BFF sitting with us in the car.

They said that they will both keep that in mind if they ever have to call a landline again. But the truth is, it rarely happens with teen-agers.

12 comments:

Sue said...

So much has changed from when we were kids regarding technology and the proper etiquette/manners, huh?

I don't envy the job you parents have today of trying to guide your kids through the maze of new territory out there. Keep up the good work ;-)

God bless you!

Heather Kay said...

This is a really hard one! We have not had a landline in several years. Once, when I called my sis, my nephew answered the phone, "What do you want?" He's lucky I couldn't get my hands on him! :)

I saw your reference to the Billy Boy song on your twitter. My siblings and I used to sing that all the time. Now it'll be going through my head today while I clean the church.

Staci said...

kids....;)

Chris said...

We can SO relate here. With a His, Mine and Ours set of 5, the two youngest are our cell phone babies. At 17 and 15 they think nothing of texting during conversations with us, and answer the home phone as if it was a chore because that's "our" phone.

Hey, thanks for dropping by and commenting on His Unfinished Work. I appreciated your perspective. Drop by again anytime.

CocoDivaDog said...

Hi YNB,
You bring up a very interesting point. I'm afraid most youngsters don't learn good phone manners until they get a job and their boss has to teach it to them.

I know at my school library, I have to teach good phone manners to my student aides when they answer my library phone for me.

Thank you for sharing this topic.

See you later in Tweetsville.

Lala's world said...

this is soooo true, I get upset at my girls if I hear them not being polite on the phone!

RR Mama said...

Cell phones and teenagers are mess these days. There are so many things these kids are doing with their cell phones. I should be shocked but I'm not. My 8 almost 9 is already asking for one and I am standing firm in my decision not till he's at least 12 and then only talking capabilites. No TXTing or pictures. I know I'm a mean mommy but I will feel better knowing what's going on with his phone.

nancygrayce said...

Oh, dear, I remember growing up, we had one rotary dial phone in the kitchen.....we had no privacy to talk to anyone! That was probably for the best!

MotherT said...

We were pretty strict with our girls about answering the phone, so they have been pretty good at teaching others.

I do get frustrated with the texting while I'm talking with them. I haven't quite figured out how to address this issue.

Dawn said...

There are many other areas as well that the current generation is lacking in manners!! Sad.

Anonymous said...

When I get on to my son for bad phone manners he looks at me like I've sprouted horns and grown a tail. They DON'T know how to talk politely, only text. It will be a rude awakening when they get a real job someday.

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