As a parent of elementary schoolers, it’s increasingly difficult to try to arrange playdates with kids in the neighborhood. I text another parent. They might not respond until tomorrow. There’s a communication gap where young kids don’t have a way to get a hold of their friends without depending on a parent to have a cell phone at the ready.
Last week, my son was supposed to play with a few kids, but he had gotten in trouble on the bus so I told him we had to cancel. I looked into it more and he was being bullied so I said he could go play with them, I just had to make sure that we still okay with the parent. I texted. She didn’t reply into the next day.
I miss the days when a kid can just have a piece of paper with his friends numbers and call them to see if they can play. People almost always answered their house phone if they are home. Returning texts and calls, not as much. You’re relying on one parent, instead of the whole house, to be looking at their phone and not be busy.
My kids are 7 and 5. The elder I trust to walk to a neighbor friends house within reason so I sometimes just tell him to go knock on their door. Like the old days. Today he walked to the neighbor and his mom said he’s busy but she will send him over in an hour. He never came. So we texted her. Nothing. My wife is reluctant to send him down the street to knock on the door again for fear of being rude. I’m sure it’s no big deal but it’s just disappointing for the kids to wait for a friend who then never shows and no explanation.
We plan on not getting our kids their own phones until their at least 13, so I’ve got 6-8 more years of texting back and forth to try to arrange things. There’s just this communication gap for kids that we haven’t accounted for. Yes, I could get a landline for the house, but we need everyone else to get it too for it to work.
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You keep saying you’re just texting people. Are you not also trying to call them? Are they just not answering?
Whats the difference? Why text? You obviously have their number. Why does a wall mounted monstrosity enable you to make a phone call? Pretty sure you can call people on your cell….
Back when we had a landline we usually let calls go to the answering machine.
There’s quite literally nothing stopping you from installing a landline. And the same parent that ignored your text for 24 hours won’t call you back for 24 hours regardless.
The people who don’t answer for an entire day saw the message and didn’t want to give you an answer for an entire day. People only answered the phone back in the landline days because they couldn’t as easily ignore people they didn’t want to speak with.
This was a different time for a lot of the reasons you listed out.
Kids who grew up in the 90s remember these days
So… you clearly have a number you can text. Why can’t you call?
This just sounds like an issue of the people you are trying to get a hold of just being totally aloof in general.
If they aren’t going to answer messages from a phone that they probably always carry on their person, I doubt that they’d even answer it if it were mounted on a wall.
I got one recently and it just rings spam all day – so, I had it taken out. Bummer.
Would you not still be ignored with a landline?
Lets revert back in time to suit your kids’ needs.
We didn’t answer phone calls on landlines either
>I text another parent. They might not respond until tomorrow.
And, how is a landline call different? You call someone, they still might not pick up the phone. Hell, they might not even be in the house to answer.
I think what OP is saying is that in the “old days,” everyone was under the same umbrella of communication: the phone. Everyone had access to it, it was a shared piece of equipment. I called my friends, they called me, sometimes no one answered, sometimes you talked to their dad or brother, (hello phone manners), you told him to tell friend to call. Just lots of back and forths with different people, same phone. I never involved my parents in my social life (from kindergarten on, that was mostly my job). Now we’re tied to personal devices and feel weird about most everything.
I read that as landmines and was wondering wtf is this guy talking about
What makes you think they’re going to answer the landline?
OP doesnt realise you can make phone calls in her phone. I shit you not I met some gen Zs who didnt know you can make a “phone call” on their phones. But their was IQ was around 80 I think
We used to just go over to their house, knock on the door and ask if they could play. No phone needed.
I have a 7 and 5 year old as well. I heard a great idea recently I think we will do. If you can, add an extra line on your cell plan and get a base phone. No need to be fancy, maybe even no internet. And then get a simple dock for it and treat it like a cordless home phone. If kids want to call a friend they can at home. And that way as they get older – but not old enough for a cell phone – and they go somewhere I want to check in on them or they need to call (say a sporting event), they can take it with them and have since there are no longer pay phones. But it’s not their phone – it’s the house phone.
It doesn’t solve others not having something similar but can help solve kid communication without having a cell too early or tying up your phone. Some of my best memories are chatting with friends on the phone.
I am making the assumption is you are not mentioning calling because you are concluding that you can’t call because texting has caused people to stop answering .I don’t 100% agree that texting is what caused people to stop answering your phone. I would assume if the average person didn’t receive a half dozen spam calls a day they’d be more likely to answer the phone than if texting didn’t exist.
Id just ignore the call like I do on my cell phones.
I have a landline still. I wanted it because my daughter was in school.
I still have a landline and never plan to get rid of it. Don’t need to unlock anything or hope anything is charged if you have to call 911
They’re just not that into you
You want landlines back because you feel entitled to immediate contact is pretty funny.
Those same people you’re trying to get in touch with now will still ignore you with a landline.
Too bad your smart phone doesn’t make calls, feels bad man
I agree with others that a landline is not going to solve your problem.
I did however put a kids messaging app on my son’s tablet and his friend got the same one on his phone so they can talk and arrange their hangouts.
There was a time when there weren’t “play dates” and kids just played. Now we watch our kids like hawks all the time, do everything for them. It’s not helpful for their development
They got rid of those cuz after the war is over people keep stepping on them and blowing up.
Landlines are still a thing hombre. All that’ll happen is you’ll call their landline, they’ll caller ID it, and decide to not answer 🤷♂️😅
Lol what? You can make calls from cell phones as well.
Bold of you to assume we picked up our landline. We usually kept the ringer off for weeks at a time. We didn’t have a machine.
I’m calling you back when I get around to it regardless.
If people had landlines they would screen those calls and ignore them too.
I read that as landmines at first and got real confused when you started talking about kids. I mean I was already against it because landmines are bad, but I figured it was just a true unpopular opinion.
It’s not a landline thing, it’s a culture thing. When I was a kid in the ’80s you answered every call. Then people got answering machines and would let callers’ messages get played on the speaker to see if they wanted to answer. Mix in caller ID and telemarketers and people answered their phone less and less.
Cell phones took this behavior and allowed for the ringer to be customized per contact. Now someone could make their boss’s ringtone wake them up while silencing calls from their needy friend. Combine that with other communications mediums like texting and Facebook and very few people want to actually answer their phones anymore.
My dad still uses the same landlines he’s had since the 80s.
We ran into same issue, so
We purchased a third phone on our cellular plan and it is used as a “home phone”
It doesn’t leave the house and our kids can use it to talk to friends and family.
Once out kids are old enough we will get them thier own phones, until then, they have use of the home phone
Some people need to get better at cell phones. I can appreciate those that aren’t stuck on their phones and instantly reply, but there’s zero chance that someone didn’t see the text for 24 hours.
My mother in law is annoying as fuck like this. She has her phone on her constantly, but can take days to respond and then says to my wife, oh I didn’t see your message. Like how?
I’ve been with my mother in law when my wife is texting me, saying she’s texting her mom, and I can see her mom looking at her phone, but is somehow oblivious to the message.
I have often let the (landline) phone ring without picking it up.
They aren’t missing your text they don’t want to respond. Life is absurdly busy for many of us and the parents that seem to have it all together and always want something from us can be exceedingly frustrating and exhausting.
“It’s so hard to get in touch with people” is a pretty piss-poor argument for a device that is only accessible when someone happens to be near it.
If your issue is that people are not calling you back or taking your calls, I’m about 99% sure that the problem is not the technology that is on their person 24 hours a day….
People just seem to be avoiding you. I don’t have an issue with people calling or texting me back, it seems like you want to be able to call anonymously so people pick up without knowing who is calling
We had a landline when my MIL lived with us. She had dementia and was beyond learning how to use a cell phone. We never gave the number out to anyone, it was only for her to call us, if she needed to. From 9 am to 9 pm, the phone would ring with telemarketers / robocalls. As soon as she no longer was able to use the phone, we got rid of it. Aint nobody got time for all that nonsense!
Couldn’t you have just called the parent’s cell phone? I don’t understand your logic that it’s either texting or landlines. Imo landlines are only useful when you are in an area with bad cell reception.
Waiting to 13 for cell phone is unrealistic btw. You’re gonna realize it’s just much easier when they have their own way of communicating with friends. Parents don’t want to be in middle of everything either
For a moment I saw landmines instead of landlines lmao. Thought this thread about to get real spicy real quick
“We need to get rid of cell phones because I demand instant gratification” is certainly a take
I still have a landline. You can’t get affordable internet where I live without one.
And before anybody says “satellite internet”:
I said AFFORDABLE. Satellite is not.
If you want to spread phone use, you’ll need to eliminate the scammers and telemarketers. I’m not going to start picking up without caller ID on a screen.
Sorry about the hassle. I agree that kids have lost a major channel for communication to one another.
Don’t text, call. Landlines are dumb.
You don’t have to text, you can call someone’s cell phone the same way you call a landline. Even when we used to call each other on landlines it was still dependent on the parent answering the phone, as most young kids were either told not to answer the phone or felt uncomfortable doing so. Most of the time when I’d call my friend’s landline it was their parent who answered first.
Nobody’s stopping you from using a landline?
We have a Landline. Love it.
I thought this said land mines and was kind of glad to see a truly unpopular opinion.
Man I thought that said landmine for a long, confusing minute
I read this as “Landmines” and rushed to the comments section
I mean, landlines have clear benefits but don’t come anywhere near solving the issue you’re describing here.
We did get a VOIP line for this purpose. $5/month, kids can call grandparents, set up play dates, etc. Go for it OP, join our retroprimative future!
Actual landlines, not this crap attached to your cable company. I had to use landlines on more than one occasion during blizzards, and they worked when we had no power. Now they don’t work if there’s no power since they’re attached to your cable/internet company. Useless during emergencies, which is the entire point of having the system in the first place.
All land lines would have caller ID so you’d be in the same situation. Likely wouldn’t get a call back 24hrs later like you do a text
My Boomer Mom would be so happy
>I text another parent. They might not respond until tomorrow.
Lack of landlines may not be the issue…
100% agree with you. Very surprised by comments here saying you should call. Perhaps those comments are from people that didn’t grow up with landlines (and don’t have kids themselves)?
I would love it if my kids could call their friend’s house, ask to speak with them, and they could plan playtime themselves. We have a landline ourselves, but that doesn’t help when others do not.
>People almost always answered their house phone if they are home.
This isn’t gonna be magically fixed with a phone tied to the house. If people (like the ones you know) are not willing to keep their phones on them and answer calls from people they know, a landline isn’t gonna fix that issue.
The lack of landlines is a symptom, not the cause, of today’s more isolative culture.
Cellphones, while primarily texting and interneting devices, can be used to call