Recently I started having the nagging thought that we needed to get a landline. So this afternoon, I'm setting up our three-handset cordless phone (with answering machine!) and plugging in my old Sony phone from high school and I am quite relieved to have a home phone. I decided that we needed a landline for several reasons, including being reachable at night, Coco and Theo being able to call 911 should the need arise, and Coco is getting old enough to want to talk on the phone and call her friends.
It bothered me that with our phones in airplane mode in the middle of the night, if someone needed to get ahold of us, they wouldn't be able to without coming over and pounding on our door. Now that we have mobile phones and apps that are lighting up our screens and setting off bells 24/7, our modern devices have set up the opposite problem to what we had 20 years ago. It used to be that none of us were reachable unless we were home. Now we're not reachable at home overnight because if we want any sleep, we have to turn our phones off!
A few weeks ago, I tried to show Coco and Theo how to get to the emergency call screen on a locked iPhone. It was so convoluted and confusing for them, I knew it would never work if we were in an emergency situation and they had to call 911 without help. So, really that sealed the deal for me on getting a landline. It's something I hope will never be necessary, but an ounce of preparation, right?
Coco is a total social butterfly and has many friends in the neighborhood. She loves running to our next door neighbor's house and to the little girl across the alley's house and asking them to come play. But she's also becoming more interested in the phone and I think learning phone skills is a really good thing, especially this day in age. But I do not want her using our mobile phones. So enter the landline! And I think she'll find it fun to answer, too.
Do you have a landline at your house? Do your kids know how to call 911 and answer the phone? These are basics we take for granted having grown up with landlines, but our kids aren't necessarily phone-as-a-talking-instrument literate the way we are. What do you think?
I have my cell set up to allow phone and text messages but not app notifications during certain hours. Maybe look into that rather than just airplane mode? That way people can still reach you no matter the phone they're calling from
ReplyDeleteI'm honestly more concerned with the health effects, so that's why I started putting it in airplane mode initially. https://www.livestrong.com/article/13708684-sleeping-next-to-your-phone-could-seriously-damage-your-health/ That's also why I don't want our kids talking on cell phones *at all* while they're young. Cell technology is so new in the grand scheme of things. The effects really are truly unknown, so I'm not taking any chances. I've been doing airplane mode since 2011, but we always had a landline in Switzerland so it was never a thing. It feels good to have a landline again now!
DeleteI have been thinking the same thing lately. My oldest turned 3 and we have been talking a lot about fire fighters and police and paramedics helping people and I have been explaining how they come to help people. But how to get them to come? I always worry about not being able to find my phone in an emergency and a land line would be accessible on a wall at all times. I have also needed to call 911 on my iPhone and tried first using the emergency call feature but even I was too stressed to be able to figure it out and ended up fumbling and needing to unlock my phone anyways.
ReplyDeleteYes to all of this! The week before last, I was trying to walk Coco through how to navigate to the emergency call screen. She's a good reader and smart as can be, but as I was showing her, I just thought, This is ridiculous! So I feel good about having a landline. :)
DeleteIt's sad but the thing that finally killed the land line for me was WHO could reach me -- any time. I worked from home and would be interrupted by 1-5 sales calls *per day,* sometimes as late as 9 or 10 at night, despite being on the do-not-call list. It was insane. When we move back to the U.S. I know I'm going to want one again for the reasons you mention, but I'm also going to dread it, too.
ReplyDeleteFunny thing! I have noticed I get a lot fewer sales calls than I did two years ago. Even on my cell phone, which I had to give out on things because I didn't have any other number. So that's a plus. So far our landline hasn't rung. I'm taking that as a good sign! ;)
DeleteI bought this phone for my kids. The buttons each have a photo and are programmed to speed dial a family member. They love to call their grandparents and I love that there are 8 people they can call in an emergency.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.amazon.com/Future-Call-FC-1007-Picture-Phone/dp/B00INR388I/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=PHOTO+PHONE&qid=1551999745&s=gateway&sr=8-3
OMG! This is hilarious! I love the photos of the people on the buttons. LOL! Smart idea for tiny kids. Coco has already memorized two phone numbers, so she is probably too old for this, but I wish I had seen this a few years ago. Fun! Thank you for sharing, Lacey. xx
DeleteI got a landline last year for the very same reasons. It felt too vulnerable for my 5 y/o boys to not have emergency access should the need arise, god forbid. Plus I had dread that I would wake up one morning with 20 missed calls because someone I love had an emergency themselves, and I wasn't there to help. Added bonus, I recently found my Swatch double phone from middle school and I'm thrilled to revive that amazing thing!!
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