There are certain rules of telephone etiquette parents should teach their children (and learn for themselves):

  1. Kids too young to talk on the phone and properly had it over to a parent should NOT answer a phone.
  2. Talking to someone in the room while talking on the phone is extremely rude. In particular yelling at one’s child(ren) while talking on the phone is ANNOYING beyond belief.
  3. Constantly cutting off the person on the other end is also rude as well as frustrating.
  4. Calling someone and not announcing yourself or leaving a phone message and not stating your name is arrogant.
  5. Leaving a rambling phone message of any kind is somewhat obnoxious.
  6. Leaving a phone number too quickly or unintelligibly for a call back is frustrating. You do not want the receiver to have to keep playing it back to figure it out.
  7. If you answer the phone and the caller requests to speak to someone other than you, do NOT just put the phone down without saying something like, “One moment please.”
  8. If you answer the phone and the caller requests to speak to someone other than you, don’t scream out that person’s name, thereby deafening the caller.
  9. If you dial the wrong number, don’t just hang up. Say “I’m sorry. I dialed the wrong number.” If you just hang up, there is a good chance the receiver will just call you back anyway to find out who called, due to caller ID magic.
  10. Don’t call people at home or work too early or too late – unless you know that person very well and know it would be a welcomed call.
  11. If you are on a cell phone while driving and a business call comes in, let the caller know you are driving if he or she needs to give you information to write down. Don’t kill yourself and others on the road just so you can write down a phone number. You can ask the caller to send you a text with the number, an email or redial your phone number and leave the info on a message.
  12. Don’t have loud cell phone conversations in public places. Others do not want to hear your personal conversations (or maybe they do and you don’t).

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