Answering the Phone - at What Age?

My oldest is 9 and I don't allow her to answer my phone unless it is my cell and it is her father, his pic comes up when he calls. Other than that I think children have no business answering the phone. At the least there is nothing more annoying than trying to talk a child into giving Mommy the phone. Plus whom ever can leave a message and in most cases the number pops up so you know who called and when.

My oldest child now answers the phone ..he is almost 11yrs. I usually prefer to answer it myself. I don't really have my two younger kids answer the phone most of the time.

I don't let them answer the phone when we are not home, that's what VM is for. Our phones have different rings for different callers. They know only to answer the phone if it the ring is from me or dad. I do let them answer when I am home and the caller ID shows it is one of their friends or from family. I am a sub and my husband owns his own business, I am not about to let them answer the phone and possibly not give us a much needed message. I also hate calling and having a toddler or child answer the phone - it is not cute, it is annoying, especially when they still can't speak clearly.

In response to your question, I think the true ability comes somewhere between 8 & 10 depending on the child. Many will argue that; but I am referencing your question. Many people let 4 & 5 year olds answer the phone, but I will be honest, I "HATE" calling a house and a kid on the PK-1st grade level answers the phone. The kids at that age (yes the parents may think it is cute) but I do not want to talk to the child, they are not able to relay a message and they sit and want conversation. (The reason they answer it). So if grandma is calling who likes to speak to "Joey" then a 4 year old is fine; but if I am calling for a purpose, I do not want to talk to your 4 year old. I feel when the little kiddos answer the phone it is like pulling teeth. I need the kid to say "Hello Mrs. Smith. Hold on I will get my mom" or "Hello Mrs. Smith, I am sorry but my mom is not available right now." "Is she at the church Joey; I can ask and he can say "Yes I think so." See that is appropiate with a 3rd grader but not a PKer.... So my answer to YOUR question is between 8 & 10 depending on the child. As far as messages, I think they start to get them right around 10 and then somewhere between 13 & 14 they loose that ability unless it has something to do with them. (LOL....) Hope this helps.

I don't let them answer the phone. It's just not anything they need to do. The phone calls are for me or my husband and not them. When they are around 10-12 and have friends that want to call them we will probably get them a teen line so we can keep our phone for our calls. The family I was a nanny for had a kids line and it was upstairs, all 7 kids had it for their calls so yes there were some sharing issues. Also, if no one was upstairs the phone could ring off the hook. They had the phone wired from the bottom of the stars and could unplug it if needed too.

With so many people only using cells now it often annoys me when I am calling a friend, especially calling from my cell to theirs, and their kids answer and are playing a game on the friends cell and don't tell them I am calling. It is wrong on so many levels. I just wasted money on a daytime phone call and they are playing a game...It annoys me, can you tell?

I guess we tend to revert back to our parents attitudes when it comes to things like this too, my parents didn't let me answer the phone so that may be where I get the base attitude.

It really does depend on the child. I think it was around six that they could answer the phone respectfully and summon the person being called. It was several years later before they could handle a message. We used to practice making and answering phone calls with our kids and it was something we also practiced in scouts. We also practiced telephone safety - not giving out too much information over the phone -( if they were home alone.) Another skill to consider is how to find a phone number you need without incurring charges from directory assistance. Even in this computer age, I would teach the kids how to look up a number in the book and the difference between the white pages and the yellow pages (and the blue pages-city/state/government. We did scavenger hunts in the yellow pages some times. Find me a dentist in Arlington that has night hours. Who could you call to find out about a dog license? Where is a dry cleaner located?

My son was talking on the phone from about age 2 onward, but had correct manners/etc could be trusted to "answer" the phone (and make outgoing calls) at about age 3.5

So it took a little over a year's worth of monitoring and training.

Edited to Add after reading replies: Who on earth leaves their PreK kid alone in an empty house? Or so far away that they can't hear the phone ring / their child talking on it? That's not a child's fault, that is a parenting fault. My phone would ring, my son would ask to answer it, he'd answer and hand it over. 2-5 seconds. And usually while I was drying off my hands. If he hadn't answered it, it would have gone to voicemail and been returned 12-24 hours later. Ditto he phones my mum almost every day for the past 5 years (he's 8). They have a 5 minute chat in the morning as he's making his breakfast (now... before while I was making his breakfast). I've never come across a child who doesn't instantly hand over the phone when "May I speak to your Mom?"... but then I'm also calling friends... who have taught their children how to answer... and are right there. I suppose I may run into latchkey stuff later on, but young, the kids just shouldn't be out of ear shot at any point IMHO.

I had a busniess in our home. There were 2 ways to answer the phone, correctly or not at all!!! They learned at an early age how to do that. I think, at first if I wasn't able to get to the phone they just asked the caller to call back so I didn't have to rely on them taking a message. Then they figured out how to "take a message", I remember having a couple friends call when I was busy to test the kids!!! But I think it was about 7 years old for mine when they could be trusted to answer correctly, write down who called and then the hardest part......... get me the message!!! I agree with a few other postings.....don't like when little kids answer the phone!! Good luck!!

I would say about 10 is an ok age for most kids to be able to speak to someone on the phone in regards to answering it.

seven is about right.

Well, kids should be introduced to it at an early age, just in case an emergency, but in order to rely on them for messages, I would say when they can write down numbers in a reasonable amount of time and can retain the message long enough to get it on paper. Everyone will be different. Often times, for appointments and such, they can just ask the caller to call back and leave a voice message.

When they can beat me to the phone :-)

My almost 4 yo answers the phone but I am right there.

My 11 yo and 13 yo are good at answering the phone, not so good at messages.

Realistically, though, 6 ir 7 was when they could answer by themselves with manners.

My daughter started answering the phone at age 3. 90% of the phone calls were family or telemarketers so there were no problems. As far as older children and being able to take messages, etc, I would say age 8 to 10.

Our daughter started at the end of 4. We also practiced by having my mom call..

Once she was in kindergarten, I also had their moms permission, to call classmates to invite them over. It was so cute.. I had forgotten about this..

My son started to answert he phone age 4 saying hello then he will hand me the phone I was right there heard who it was...Then he learned to dial so he loved to call his grandparents or me when I was gone he was home with dad..Now that he is 7 he will answer if i'm busy he'll ask who is this if he doesn't already know then he will say mom is busy she will call you back..As far as writing down the message he isn't that far away but he isn't home alone either..It's good to teach kids this basic skill to be polite & take message including name & # for who, the call goes to

My son is four (almost 5) and has started answering in the last 6 months or so. He has a very structured kind of script to follow though. Taking a message is a whole separate issue, since he's never home alone and never answering the phone without me in the room.

So far he has pretty good phone etiquet. I taught him some set phrases to use "Hello. Who's speaking?" "Hi _________. This is DS" If it's a family member or close friend, he usually has his little conversation first. When he's done he always asks "Do you want to talk to my Mommy?"

For an older kid, I'd take the same tact. I'm a middle school teacher and have to train students to answer the classroom phone. Give your child a set phrase to use, rather than just expecting him/her to "speak respectfully." They can have a little script by the phone "Hello. ______ residence." or something. "May I ask who's calling?" etc.

HTH
T.

my two(almost three) year old likes to answer the phone. he thinks everyone is pappa (he loves to call and talk to his pappa). i let him answer the home phone bc family is the only ones who call it, but he doesnt get to answer cell phones.