Teenage telephone troubles (1 Viewer)

[Micheal]

My money says that they will talk well over their limit and end up getting cut off because they won't be able to pay the bill. Eventually they will be back on your house phone.

If they talk all night on the house phone what makes everyone think they won't due the same on a cell phone?

Besides, what kind of message is this sending? You would be giving them more responsibility when they haven't even earned enough to use the home telephone.

 

[RichP]

Holy "Lack of Parenting" Batman!

 

[Seth--L]

That's the point. They'll either learn to better budget their phone time or find a way to pay for all of the minutes. Either way, the free lunch is over.

As others have said, to prevent the kids from hoping back on the home phone, remove the phone jacks from their rooms, or buy phones that you have to enter a code to use, or Dave can get a cell phone, have all the home phone calls forwarded there, and remove all the phones from the house.

 

[Micheal]

Or run up a huge bill and just not pay it!

How old are the girls? The phone company may come after him for the money if they are not old enough to sign for the cell phone contract and he does. They run up a huge bill that they can't possibly pay for and Daddy is left with the tab. What makes you think that these girls who won't even respect their own father when it comes to "call waiting" will all of sudden learn responsibility?

Teach them a lesson first, then they can learn to be responsible.

 

[ThomasC]

If you let them get cell phones, make them completely in charge of the phone bill. Don't let them get the monthly services to prevent from running up the bill, but let them get one of those prepaid "pay as you go" plans.

http://www.attwireless.com/cell-phon...er/index.jhtml

http://www.virginmobileusa.com/

 

[Seth--L]

That's what I was about to say.

 

[LanieParker]

Here is my solution:

Tell them that there is to be no more phone calls during the week to their friends. On the weekends they are allowed 30 minutes of talk time a night. If they don't like it too bad. If they are caught on the phone during the week, you simply make them hang up and take away their weekend phone time.

That worked for us when I was growing up. I didn't have a phone in my room and if my dad came in and told me to get off I listened, because I knew that if I didn't not only would my phone time get taken away, but so would my other activities.

Set the boundries, you are the parent. You should not have to go out of your way and spend any extra money to enforce rules in your own home. They either follow the rules or lose priviledges.

 

[Patrick Sun]

Another suggestion was getting one of those military payphones (one-way, outbound calls only) that were limited by time for each token popped into it. That's what an officemate's friend's father did when this became a problem in his household. The father would give his daughters a certain number of tokens at the beginning of the month, and when the tokens were all used up, the daughters were done using the phone for that month.

 

[Micheal]

Bingo!

 

[todbnla]

Dave,
I feel your pain brother, I have 14 and 16 year old girls and it NEVER ends, even when they are not at home! And sometimes its really not our kids fault cause most of the calls are inbound, and for those of you who don't have daughters, telling them does not work. I even tell mine with the belt, a few days later, ring-ring....
Most of the things mentioned here don't work, trust me I have tried them all. One of the last houses we owned had a telephone "interface" box located in our laundry room, you could open it up and unplug the line you wanted to shut that area's service off, I wish our new home did.:frowning: Boys call at all hours of the night, up to midnite on the weekends. It sucks Kids today are nothing like when we were growing up!
We have spoiled them to no end... :frowning:

 

[Patrick Sun]

Todd, you need to use the answer machine to screen ALL INCOMING calls, and in the answer message, tell them the proper time to call your household is before 9 p.m., not whenever they feel like calling.

 

[ThomasC]

My uncle and aunt had the same rule for my cousins as Patrick mentioned above; no calls after 9 p.m.

 

[Micheal]

Really!? So how do the boys call the house when there is no phone to call?

If the girls can't get the boys to limit the calls then the girls won't have a phone. Trust me, this works. Girls that receive countless calls can really start to limit the nonsense when they know that there are consequences to being on the phone all the time. You just have to back up the threat 110%.
Once you do that and they learn that there are consequences to their actions you will see a real change.

PS- Any boy that calls at odd times gets talked to by the parent and subsequently hung up on.

Who's running the house here??

 

[DaveNel]

Yeah I know, I want to keep my house phone, Just need a way to have more power over the lines.. Seems like time warner doesnt have any extra features at this time to block numbers either incoming or outgoing local numbers.

Oh by the way my daughters are 16 (LOL) Twins. We get a long except for the phone situation. I dont want to start a war just figure out if there is like software through like a caller ID system that will block incoming numbers and outgoing numbers..

 

[DaveHo]

It's not starting a war, it's setting boundaries. You need to stop tiptoeing around and be a parent, not a friend.

 

[Moe Maishlish]

Adolescent girls have social lives... deal with it. It's one thing to be a responsible parent, it's a complete different story to enforce rules simply to make a point of showing them that you're the authority figure. If this is the only issue with your daughters, then make the solution simple instead of creating new problems for yourself...

Get another phone line for your girls, WITH call waiting (so they learn how to use it, in case the other is waiting for a call, etc). They'll learn to share it, and leave your private line alone.

I'd highly advise AGAINST hiding or restricing access to a telephone. You never know when there's going to be an emergency, and 911 needs to be dialed. Spending crucial seconds looking for a phone when there's a fire/flood/burglar/heart attack/whatever can be disastrous. There should ALWAYS be a phone handy in such cases.

Moe.

 

[James St]

If a phone is dis-connected a dial tone is still maintained for emergency services like 911.

 

[Alex-C]

Awesome !

 

[Leila Dougan]

Interesting you think that. I was a teenage girl not too long ago (I'm only 24) and I can tell you that I DID listen to my parents most of the time. I also did have a very active social life and liked to talk on the phone all the time as well, but don't think that disrespecting parents is par for the course. I only talked that much because it didn't bother my parents (I did answer the call waiting).

But I'm mostly astounded that you "told" them with a belt!? As in, you whip 'em?? A 14 and 16 year old??

The big clue is you said you spoil them. Yup, I'd say that could the problem if you can't enforce things now. Now, no need to go ultra-authoritarian for the sake of being so (like Moe cautioned against) but demanding respect and making them follow household rules is only common sense.

So give them the second line and let 'em keep the current number if it's no problem for you since it would be a nightmare to have your phone constantly ringnig for them. But don't give them a cell phone unless it's prepaid (my parents have been there done there with my brother, $400 bill!). But with a housephone that has unlimited local, then it's a no-brainer as well. Then make them pay the $15/month (split between them, that should be easy).

 

[Moe Maishlish]

Disconnecting the phone was only one option mentioned here. Hiding, restricting, blocking, etc. the phone has been mentioned, all of which would hinder a call to emergency services.

Also... 911 might not be the ONLY number that might be called during an emergency. I can think of several situations in which I needed a phone for emergency calls to family, friends, animal control, etc.

Point is, when you absolutely NEED a phone, you should HAVE a phone.

Moe.