polite times to call

Seraph

Tue, Apr 08 2008, 4:30 am

in your opinion, if you're calling someone you dont already know, at home, what time to what time is an ok and polite time to call?

in my opinion, if youre calling someone who you dont know their schedule, its rude to call before 10 am and after 9 pm, because some people are early to bed and some people are late to rise... and its extremely rude to wake up a stranger...

smiley:)

Tue, Apr 08 2008, 5:28 am

I would agree with HR. Though I must say where we live seems to be an early rising place and countless ppl who dont know me, called at 7:30 am.

shalhevet

Tue, Apr 08 2008, 5:51 am

For Israel, 10am is the middle of the day. I would certainly call (or expect to be called) from 8am, but people sometimes call from 7am.

At night I would call anyone till about 9.30-10pm and chareidim I would call till 10.30 (chareidim tend to keep later hours), and on summer motzai Shabbatot even later.

I will never forget that someone I know fairly well once called me at 7am (this is Israel) on a pre-Pesach morning in the days when I would stay up till 3 or 4am cleaning, and I didn't have kids of an age that I had to get up early. She said 'Did I wake you up?' and I said 'Yes'. So she said, 'Good, it's time to get up, lots of work to be done before Pesach.' (I was in my twenties at the time, and this was an older lady so I couldn't tell her what I thought of her mussar.... Exploding anger

)

Seraph

Tue, Apr 08 2008, 6:08 am

hila wrote:

And most people know they can call me between 6-6:30 am to ask for a ride to Jerusalem !

I did say people that don't know you... If you know someone will be up at that time, gezunteheit!

Shalhevet, you wrote in the other thread but I'll answer here. You said if I'm israeli I should keep israeli times.
Well I work for an american company and work till 2 am... and my husband works from noon and only gets home at 9ish... so we are late to bed....
So thats not happening.
What especially bugs me (but how would strangers know) is that once I get woken up, I cannot go back to sleep, so I cant just tell whoever woke me up "I'm sleeping, please call back later", because once I'm up, I'm up for the day...

Imaonwheels

Tue, Apr 08 2008, 6:23 am

People honor it less today a little, but Isrtaeli etiquette say no 2-4 and never after 10 unless its ok with the person or urgent. I always say excuse me if I must call after 10. There are other times thoughtful people don't call unless really necessary. Before 8 if you have to get kids out to school and 7-9 if you need to put little ones to bed. I often call friends during mincha-maariv because I know they won't be in the middle of family dinner.

Pizza

Tue, Apr 08 2008, 7:20 am

When I need to take a nap, I always turn the phone off.

When my kids' friends call at ungodly hours, I tell them so. If I dont, who will? "Yes, he's here, please dont EVER call again after 11 PM"

They get the message

Seraph

Tue, Apr 08 2008, 7:26 am

I dont turn off the ringer, bec if its an emergency, I'd want to be woken up.

and bec my husbands chavrusa often calls him to learn at 4 am...

Marion

Tue, Apr 08 2008, 7:30 am

We were taught not until after 8 on a weekday, not until after 10 on a Sunday. And NEVER after 10 p.m. unless, G-d forbid, someone died.

Raisin

Tue, Apr 08 2008, 7:54 am

we don't call people after 9.30 (except family) Its also pretty stupid to call a mother with young kids from about 4-8pm, unless it is a quick call. And on a school morning before 9am is not great timing either.

My pet peeve is a) friends, but usually relatives who think it is acceptable to call at 11.30pm just to chat. Sometimes it is ok, but sometimes it can be really bad timing.

b) Israelis who call us on sunday morning not knowing that 1. we are a couple of hours earlier and 2. Sunday is not a working day outside of israel. So we will get calls at 8am or so, for extremely unimportant things.

pinkbubbles

Tue, Apr 08 2008, 8:25 am

9 to 8 if they have young children. 10 to 9 if its a single friend or someone similar.

OR if I know the person I'm calling stays up late and does't mind calls, then I call later. Depends on the situation.

Tamiri

Tue, Apr 08 2008, 9:03 am

In Israel from 8 am, and - as Imaonwheels wrote, not between 2-4 pm (though who rests anymore at those hours) and until about 9:30 pm.

Breslov, no one has a clue that you keep American hours and need to sleep in. I, too, would suggest turning off the ringer if I needed to sleep during daylight hours. In fact, the ringer in our bedroom is off so that if someone calls when I am resting, I don't hear the phone ring. If it's very important, the answering machine picks up and I can hear that (it's in our room) and I can jump out of bed if it's an emergency or someone I MUST talk to.

greenfire

Tue, Apr 08 2008, 9:03 am

I'm a morning person so I don't mind at 8:30 am after kids are off to school ... however being a morning bird - I veg out early so never call me after 8 pm ... if I love you - you can call till 9 pm ... after that I bark & growl if I even answer ... Banging head

DefyGravity

Tue, Apr 08 2008, 10:41 am

9am - 9pm. I hate it when people call at 10pm because I'm usually about to go to sleep or sometimes already sleeping.

You don't know how many times I decided to crash early at 9:30pm and then got a call at 10 - 10:30pm and it completely ruined my sleep for the night. There's just something about being frightened out of a sound sleep by the horrible ringing on the phone.

My friends know they can call me early (7am) if they're calling me about a ride to the gym. But I would never call someone until 9am - unless they tell me otherwise.