Friday, March 26, 2010

Ring

I was home with my kids the other day when the phone rang. I was super tired at the moment so I let the kids get it. No one budged. I struggled to my feet, ambled into the kitchen, and found the phone on the table eight inches from my strong-voiced daughter. It was still ringing.

“Do you know what that sound means?” I asked sarcastically.

She looked up and innocently asked, “What sound?”

“The telephone!” By now it stopped ringing.

“Oh. Yeah. I knew that.”

“Why didn’t you answer it?”

“I thought someone else would.”

I can’t really fault her for that answer; I thought the same thing. But it was within a foot of her. That’s the thing: when I was a kid it was seen as a moral obligation, if not a privilege, to answer the phone. Someone that we knew wanted to talk with us. We usually caught it before the 3rd ring, much the way they answer their cell phones.

Aha.

3 comments:

jamie hixon said...

Yeah, she knew if it was someone she wanted to talk to they would have called her cell.

Glad this post isn't about a marriage proposal to Amanda or something.

Larry said...

Well, the problem doesn't go away with maturity. Mom and I do he same thing. If she's sitting at her computer, the phone is four inches away from her keyboard!

scott thompson said...

Glad to hear! My kids aren't crazy then--they do the same thing. Times have certainly changed