Do you ever get to use the phone?!

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Forum -> Parenting our children -> Toddlers

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seeker

Sun, Aug 26 2012, 1:52 pm

DD 21 months absolutely won't let me use the phone anymore. It's just completely impossible when she's awake. And when I wait for the nap to make my 1-2 calls for the day, luck would have it that she wakes up early and I get cut off. It's getting so embarrassing! How do you deal with this?!

I try giving her bits and pieces of attention but she wants it ALL. Wants the phone, wants me, wants something, all of the above. Screaming, grabbing, etc. Argh!

bigprincess

Sun, Aug 26 2012, 2:05 pm

I give ds another phone and put it on mute, so he thinks he's talking on the phone.

lizard8

Sun, Aug 26 2012, 2:07 pm

Nope. I can't use the phone with my daughter, and only use it if I NEED to. Its annoying and hard but I got used to it. I just don't know what I'm gonna do when dc #2 comes...

ellie23

Sun, Aug 26 2012, 2:30 pm

heeelll no I cant talk on the phone with my toddlers around (yeah- I have 2 of them!)! I hide in a closet to speak when they are awake- no joke- I hide from my twins Smile

..eh its all part of the process..they babble happily to each other right outside the door and it makes me smile....

Sun, Aug 26 2012, 2:57 pm

Giving dd a toy phone that resembled our home phone sort of worked, well enough for me to engage in essential communication. The instant I picked up the phone, no matter how content she had been a moment earlier, she would demand attention, so I would hand her her own phone as a distraction. By the time the novelty wore off, she outgrew the behavior.

chocolate moose

Sun, Aug 26 2012, 5:19 pm

21 mos can go to playgroup. If you can't talk on the phone how do you handle chores in the house and shopping ?

Sun, Aug 26 2012, 7:08 pm

chocolate moose wrote:

21 mos can go to playgroup. If you can't talk on the phone how do you handle chores in the house and shopping ?

Not OP, but some kids know that Mother is paying attention to someone else on the phone. My toddler let me do most things in the house and was great at the store - after all, we were spending time together, but got super-needy when I was on the phone.

chocolate moose

Sun, Aug 26 2012, 9:12 pm

What I am suggesting doesn't solve the problem, but it allows the OP to do some things done without her child suffering.

bnm

Sun, Aug 26 2012, 9:23 pm

I try to wait for naptime

seeker

Sun, Aug 26 2012, 9:28 pm

She has a phone that's IDENTICAL to mine and really works (doesn't make calls but I charge it up and she can press buttons to her heart's content) but that's only sometimes enough. Sometimes she just wants in on the real action, wants to talk to the person MOMMY's talking to, or maybe just wants Mommy.

She participates in all the chores, really! I give her a water spritz bottle to 'help' pretreat the laundry. I pull up a chair and let her 'help' wash the dishes. She pours ingredients when I'm cooking or baking. She swiffers the floor. She really likes being part of the real world. But of course it's highly insulting for Mom to talk on the phone to someone else. She's even pretty happy to play or read by herself when I'm doing other things, just not talking on the phone.

Playgroup is only in the budget when I'm working. And obviously, then I'm at work. Anyway, I'm not going to the trouble of finding somewhere to send her and then taking her there just so I can get my couple of phone calls taken care of. I don't need to shmooze all day, I just occasionally need to do something revolutionary like book a dentist appointment. Or maybe if I get really ambitious I even want to say happy birthday to my sister in a different time zone, in which it's midnight at our nap time.

Anyway, it's nice to hear that at least I'm not the only one and this is a normal thing to go through. At least now I won't feel so embarrassed when I have to yell my dentist appointment over a toddler screaming "{DD} say allo! DD SAY ALLOOOOO!!!"

Simple1

Sun, Aug 26 2012, 9:47 pm

It's hard to be on the phone with kids around. It's easier when there is a sibling around for her to play with. But wait till she's a teen, then you'll really never get to use the phone because she's always using it, and if not, she''ll need your attention till later at night - at least toddlers go to bed early.

observer

Sun, Aug 26 2012, 10:14 pm

I can't do much of anything with toddlers around, including talking on the phone, cooking, etc....

imaamy

Sun, Aug 26 2012, 10:42 pm

I try to do everything I can via email. Not dentists and wishing family happy birthday, but I avoid phone calls as much as I can.

mummy-bh

Mon, Aug 27 2012, 12:35 am

Probably not the answer you want to hear, but just wait until your daughter turns into a teenager. Then you'll NEVER get a chance to use the phone!

smilethere

Mon, Aug 27 2012, 4:57 am

I rarely do anything when my children are home, no phonecalls, hardly any cooking, no laundry other than perhaps loading washer or dryer etc.

B"H my children go to sleep early, so that's when I get to do stuff.

Ruchel

Mon, Aug 27 2012, 5:58 am

Yes I used my phone. I also went to the toilet. I just taught my child What

amother

Mon, Aug 27 2012, 10:38 am

My best friend and I can finally have a real conversation, only because her youngest is now in sleepaway yeshiva. For 20-something years, from the time her oldest child was a toddler, we could never exchange more than 2-3 sentences in person or on the phone, without being interrupted.

and mummy-bh is so right about the teenage daughters. mine had a cell phone years before I did, just so that she wouldn't monopolize the landline.

yo'ma

Mon, Aug 27 2012, 11:07 am

mummy-bh wrote:

Probably not the answer you want to hear, but just wait until your daughter turns into a teenager. Then you'll NEVER get a chance to use the phone!

I liked your post, but I wish I can like it more than once Smile

. With me it doesn't make much difference though because the phone is usually for my 13 or 14 year old.

observer

Mon, Aug 27 2012, 11:40 am

Ruchel wrote:

Yes I used my phone. I also went to the toilet. I just taught my child What

Different kids are different. Some kids need more than others.

Ruchel

Mon, Aug 27 2012, 12:27 pm

Even a toddler can be taught mama is "busy", whatever you are doing. I'm not talking of one hour!. I guess there is something I don't understand.

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