OK, poll time
Everyone needs to comment, I need numbers. I want to know how many consider it rude to call anyone after ten. My inlaws LOVE to call here after ten in the evening. I myself never place a telephone call after five PM unless it is an emergency. So? what say ye, phone calls after ten at night, good or bad? Ogwife says “only in YOUR world”. I say she’s wrong. A late night phone call is an intrusion into people’s personal lives, and an unwelcome one at that. I was thirty five before I ever heard the phone ring after six, unless someone had died.
45 comments Og | Uncategorized
I draw the line at 8:00 PM. Anything after 10:00, somebody better be dead or they soon will be.
My rule is nothing before or after 8:00 unless it is an absolute emergency.
I get pissed if someone calls after 9:00 PM. If my phone rings after nine my heart starts to pound because I think something bad has happened. I’ve gone off on friends and family for calling after nine for things that aren’t an emergency.
Add in the fact we have kids, and I think people shouldn’t call after 7:30. If Clone is having trouble falling asleep, the phone ringing will wake him and then we have to fight to get him back down again.
Between 9PM – 10PM, a little gut tightening. 10PM and after, full blown panic attack.
–Ken–
Telemarketers get an earful after 8pm, if I answer at all.
I have to go with no on the after 10pm thing, unless it’s one of my close girlfriends or my mom. Teenaged girls calling for my sons are politely informed that they do not accept phone calls after 10pm. That being said, I have told my boys they can stay on the phone as long as they want if it’s OKAY with the other person’s parents to call that late, but momma needs her sleep!
Yeah, after 10 is too late, altho I make exceptions for certain people.
You don’t call after about 9:00 pm unless you know the people you’re calling are up and about and etc in the evening hours. Most people know it’s okay for me until about 11 pm but after that you better be bleeding or dying.
Just how it is at my house.
Jenny
After ten is rude, whenever someone calls that late I think it’s an emergency.
My family raised me with the “Rule of Nine.” That’s not after 9:00PM, and not before 9:00Am with the exception of emergencies and people you know are in the habit of being up at such a time.
I would ask if the offending inlaws live in the same time zone. I have found that it is impossible to convince some people that there is any such thing as a time zone.
That’s what Caller ID is for, my friend.
Personally, I keep odd hours and I’ve got smacks calling me at all times, so no, it really doesn’t bother me. I will say, though, if you’re calling after 2:30 a.m. (which is about the latest I stay up), y’all better have a good reason.
I’ll go along with 10, but only Sunday through Thursday. Weekend nights it’s more like 2 AM.
I’ll agree with 10, but only Sunday through Thursday. Friday and Saturday nights I’m cool with it until about 2AM, unless someone’s in jail or needs help getting home ;)
Sorry for the double post.
My line is 9 PM, but then, I never answer the phone regardless of what time it is. I let La Machine get it, and decide whether or not to pick up when I hear the caller’s voice.
I think it depends on you. If you don’t mind getting calls late, then it’s not an issue. If you do mind, and you make that fact clear, and they STILL call late – that is RUDE.
I am a night owl – yet the only person who calls me after 10pm is my sister. Since I only talk to her about every other week or so – it’s not that big a deal. The real problem is, she wants to use me as a dumping ground for all the bad crap she’s had happen over the last week or so. Pisses me off when she rattles off an hour of “so and so did this – why are they so stupid?” ARG! Then I have to find a nice soothing book to calm down again.
I think it’s a good thing for parents to restrict their kid’s friends calling at all hours and disturbing the household (when their kids are living at home). My kids never had any calls after 9pm – that was the cut off. When they got to college and had cell phones, my kids started getting calls at all hours. BUT – when they came home – they asked their friends not to call them late at night on our house phone – and they put their cells on vibrate and would take the conversation outside if they really wanted to talk late.
After 10, unless it’s like 5 minutes after, is horrible. If it’s not an emergency, it’s someone who wants to rant and vent for 2 hours, for which I woulda gotten paid bundles if I were a psychiatrist.
After 2AM is a nightmare. Oldest son did call once at that time and I thought I was going to shed my skin.
How about the inlaws calling at 7AM?!?! On a weekend?!? That sucks, too.
It’s just fine to call after 10pm. Sure. And I make sure to call them back at 5am. They usually get the hint.
Yup, 10pm unless it’s an expected pre-cleared call, or an emergency.
Unfortunately my best friend regularly violates this rule, as does my brother.
I of course answer the phone because every once in a while it’s an emergency (they both end up in trouble a lot, and my mother, who my brother lives with, is critically ill) and I get VERY irritated because most often they are calling because they are lost, or need tech support.
I don’t make a habit of answering the land line phone at any hours, but if I did, I’d certainly not answer it after 9:00 PM. That’s what the message machine is for. If it’s an emergency I can hear what’s up and pick it up anyway.
I don’t make calls after 9:30pm and after 10:00 I panic if my phone rings. EXCEPT for certain people – and they know it’s alright.
I vote in the after-ten-is-a-capital-offense party.
I love Fran’s attitude. I think if I wanted to be bothered with a machine, I’d probably do it just the way he does. As it is, though I never answer.
(Clue: it’s never for me anyway. SWMBO answers. But I give her a ration — to pass on to the caller — if somebody calls after 10, before 10AM, and when I’m napping ANYtime. (They ought to know better.))
I also never check my voicemail at home.
I hate the telephone, in case you hadn’t figured that out. Pretty bad for somebody who does his job long-distance and on the phone about half the time.
I **really** hate it when somebody replies to an email by calling me on the phone. If I wanted to talk to you, I would have called YOU. Next time, hit the “reply” button.
Sheesh!
M
Nothing after nine unless there is prior approval or a medical emergency. At least in the Republic.
Up to 9 or a little after to/from friends, no problem. After 10, only if there’s an emergency, or flat have to get hold of them/me before morning.
After 10, damn sure no ‘just thought I’d call’ crap or else.
My wife thinks I’m nuts because I won’t call anyone after 9pm.
Nine is the limit for me. The exception is family or a very few friends. Ialso will not call anyone after that time.
If its after 8 PM, I let the answering machine get it. I can listen in while whoever called is leaving a message, and if warranted, I pick it up, but that’s only happened once in about 12 years. All my friends know to call before 8 PM if they really want to talk with me. Anyone else that calls after 8 PM probably isn’t a friend, and therefore gets to use the answering machine. The answering machine, combined with caller ID, makes it trivial to screen incoming calls.
Once at 2 AM, the phone rang and woke me up. Thinking it might be an emergency at that late hour I picked it up. It was a teenager calling home to let his parents know that he’d be a couple of hours late, and could he have permission to stay out later than curfew. I at least had my wits about me, and played along, thanking him for calling to let us, “his parents”, know that he was going to be late, and praised him for his maturity and responsibility. I, of course, have no idea what really happened when he finally got home, but I bet he learns to accurately dial a telephone at 2 AM.
9 PM is generally the limit for me, though close friends and family would be excused for calling before bedtime (such calls are very rare). I occasionally break this rule myself, but never call after 10 PM, and I apologize as soon as they or the answering machine answers. If someone told me they did not want to be called after 8 PM, I would make damn sure I called before then. Your wishes are clear, so I’d say your in-laws are being rude.
Since your wife does not mind, however, can’t you unplug the phone in your bedroom and leave it up to her to plug it back in when she goes to bed? This sounds like a problem to be negotiated with your wife, not with her parents. As long as they do not insist on talking to YOU. I’d say you are well within your rights to refuse to talk to them or anyone else, barring emergencies, after 10 PM.
Ten p.m. is a good working guideline, unless I know who I’m calling and know for sure that he or she is (1) awake, and (2) in a mood for talking.
When someone calls me after ten, it had better be one of my children. Or (Gawd forbid) an emergency.
I think anything after 9 PM or before 8 AM is pushing it. One of my co-workers knows that is it is ok to call at the house during the shift, say until 11 PM, but he is only calling if there is a question or a problem.
Otherwise, if it ain’t serious you get an earful, and whatever question you wanted answered probably won’t be in it.
after 9 never unless they are good friends, after 10, i never call anyone. before 8? never.
Any calls before 9 AM or after 9 PM are going to get an earful of profanity unless it’s a genuine emergency.
I’ll go with the 10A to 10P unless you are my child or one of my few close friends who know I’ll always be up til at least midnight. And even then it’d better be semi-important. Conversely, I NEVER call my child & grandchild after 6P here on the west coast (SIL is stationed in S. Carolina) — although they DID call here at 5 AM to both “the other grandma” and myself to give us the results of the preg test — that was cool, workday or not! What REALLY pisses me off is the wrong numbers on the cell phone at closing time — now those jerks get an EARful for waking me with their inaccurate drunk-dialing!
I draw the line at 9pm. After that, it’s an intrusion into my life.
I generally don’t call people after 9 PM. Unlike Og, I will call after 5 PM, but I generally try to avoid calling during the dinner hour.
I tell my friends fairly often that it’s perfectly acceptable for them to call me whenever if they need to do so, but I’m pretty strict about what I consider “need”. Outside of that, even though I don’t typically go to bed until about 11 or 12, I consider it rude for people to call after 9 without a good reason (or a specific request — I do occasionally catch people online and ask them to call me for various reasons).
Here’s what REALLY drove me nuts, though. When I was in college, I spent a summer working the overnight shift at the Super Kmart in town. I’d get home at 7am, flop down into bed and go to sleep. At noon, my then-girlfriend would call me during her lunch, and get annoyed when I was short with her, even though she KNEW that I was asleep during those hours. (And yet, I didn’t get angry at the telemarketers who called, because they didn’t have any way of knowing my schedule.)
The rule, for me, has always been that if the caller don’t know the callee’s schedule or feelings on late-night calls, no calls 9pm-9am without reason. If caller DOES know the schedule, no calls when the callee could concievably be in bed.
I rarely call anyone anyway, but I DO NOT call people after 9 PM. I expect the same courtesy in return, & generally get it.
After 9 is too late for me to call anyone, unless it’s a certifiable emergency or (as in at least one case) I know the person in question keeps late hours.
After 10 I won’t answer the phone unless it’s a family member (Caller ID is indeed a wonderful invention).
It’s people who call before 9AM on a weekend who deserve to be garrotted and hung from poles in the public square pour encorager les autres.
Never after 9 pm for my childless friends and family. Please, if you know the house you’re calling is inhabited by toddlers or young children, don’t call after 7pm. My little ones get riled up by the phone, and we usually initiate sleepy-time sequence around 7pm.
On the other hand, call our house as early as you like; no matter what time they go to sleep, one of them will wake up by 6 am.
Unless I know that a person’s schedule well enough to be certain that late or early is ok, I never call before 11:00 AM or after 8:00pm. It’s simple respect. As for myself, I will answer the phone automatically at any time because it could be an emergency, but I will be very upset if the call is trivial.
I get off work at 6pm, so anyone calling me by 9 seems okay. After 9, unless you’re my buddy who works a later shift than I do, it had better be an emergency. That and don’t call during 24.
For most folks, 8:30 seems to be about the latest you should call.
9 is the latest I’ll make a call, unless someone asks me to call and says it’s alright.
At my house, after 9:30 is pushing your luck, even good friends. After ten? No effin way. Not unless it’s an emergency, or I can pummel you. To a near death state.
Bad, usually.
But not necessarily on a case by case basis.
In our house, it works like this: Anyone can call until 9. After nine (nine-thirty on weekends) it had better be an emergency, with the victim still alive. After eleven, it better be a life and death emergency – with the victim alive.
And if it has to do with death or bail money, wait until morning – they’ll be just as dead and the banks open at nine.
Cruel perhaps, but truth. We came up with the last part when my father developed a strange penchant for telephoning people at 5:30 am on Saturday and Sunday mornings. He was up, so he figured the rest of us should be too. When I told him to quit it, he responded, “but what if someone’s dead?”
On the spot I deadpanned, “They’ll be just as dead at nine.”
It’s a personal thing. Respect the limits of the person you’re calling. (For _me_, that means that calling between 2pm and 10pm should be done only in emergencies, but 4 in the morning is just fine. But that’s because I work nights.)
The last time someone called me at 3 in the afternoon, I actually answered the phone with “someone had better be dead”. Felt really stupid when I found out that, in fact, someone _was_ dead.