Phone Etiquette

NN hit a milestone yesterday... She's in 4th grade and she made her first phone call to a friend.

It was an interesting exercise.  She forgot her textbook at school...and I said, "Let's call your friend to see if they can take a picture of the assigned reading and assignment."

Mommy immediately texted her friend's mom to see if they can talk... doesn't that defeat the purpose of a phone call? How far we've come...even at work... that we send an IM to someone prior to calling.  Whatever happened to calling for the sake of calling?? It's not like we call and ask if we can text.  After an hour of waiting... we tried calling unannounced.  No answer.

By this time... mom wasn't in the room anymore.  So I decided to just start calling her other friends. First of all... she doesn't know how to dial someone's number.  I had to show her the keypad... and read the numbers off to her.  I took several tries...We finally found one that actually picked up.  And it got weird... which made me compelled to sit by NN's side.

I told her, "Ask for your friend."

Now... NN was holding the phone by her chin like a walkie-talkie... cuz that's what she's been doing since she was born to speak to her grandparents.

When the other party picked up... I'm sure they were surprised too.  Her friend's dad kept saying, "Hello?? Hello??"  Probably expecting a telemarketer or something.

Nn did good. She politely asked for her friend... and she even spoke in Chinese!!

Her friend's dad played it cool.... and handed it to his daughter.  And you can tell it was a monumental moment for them too.  Cuz you can hear their mom and dad sitting right next to her.

Nn and her friend go off on 5 minutes of conversation... talking over one another.  And with us being on speaker... we were somehow dragged into the conversation, as much as we tried to whisper.  Her parents were coaching her... just as I was coaching NN.

Then after all was said and done... it came time to hang up.

Hanging up is an art.  How do you end a phone conversation and hang up??  I personally still struggle through this sometimes, especially when speaking to {someone special}.  Hanging up is such an ultimatum.  With casual friends or colleagues, it could be simple   But NN and her friend were having problems.

It may seem natural to go with the typical "Talk to you soon...bye." or should it have been "Thanks for our help, see you at school tomorrow."  Or if it's at night, do you add in the words, "Have a good night."  And if you're really polite, "Help me say Hi to so-and-so."  Oh by the way.... NN has never physically hung up before.  Back in my days... you hang up, by putting the receiver onto the phone .  But with a smart phone, you have to know to click on the BIG RED BUTTON.  

I'm sure all this will come to her soon... just in time for the phone to evolve to the next technology.

All in all... a special moment for me.  Cuz in due time (if NN and SW is anything like us), they'll be on the phone until the wee hours of the evening.  They won't have to call POP-CORN, to get the call via Call-Waiting without waking up the house.  But whatever new trick is up their sleeve, I want to figure it out before they do.

Awwwww... my NN is growing up right in front of my eyes.

Mood: proud