PEARL 42

Telephone Interruptions

Young children just don’t understand telephone etiquette. Why, they are

even capable of choosing the exact time when we are on the phone to ask
us a question, hit us with a request, or otherwise seek our attention.
Although technology has changed, you still can’t talk to two different
people about two different things at the same time. What usually happens
is that the person on the other end of the line hears something like this:
“Yes, Mr. Bosseroo, the Castleman report specifically stated —- Taylor!
Quit pulling on my pants! — Sorry about that, sir, but the numbers for the
second quarter are in an obvious up — Taylor! Not now!” And Mr.
Bosseroo thinks, Why doesn’t this guy get control of his kid?
The fact is, we are not chained to that telephone. We can put it down.
When we deal in a rational way with the problem of children interrupting,
it permits our callers to abandon the notion that our domestic life
resembles the halls of a junior high at day’s end. If we handle our
insistent children in a businesslike way — “Mr. Bosseroo, it looks like
something has come up. Can you hang on for a second?” — our caller
will not think less of us. Then get down on the child’s level and briefly
address him or her: “Taylor, honey, you need to run up to your room for
five minutes. When five minutes are up, I want to see you down here
again but with your mouth closed if I’m still on the telephone.”
If Taylor refuses, then we must deal with the problem more
extensively. Saying to our caller, “Can I call you right back?” will give us
that opportunity. Callers usually accept this technique. They can see that
we are taking control of our children and not allowing them to control us.