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My elderly mother-in-law is pretty good about the scams but the part that I can’t understand is that she treats every land line phone call as the highest priori

My elderly mother-in-law is pretty good about the scams but the part that I can’t understand is that she treats every land line phone call as the highest priority thing in the house. She will drop everything to answer the phone.

SoftTalker 3y ago
It's what we all grew up with if you're older than about 50. The phone rings, you answer it. It's a habit. Even caller id wasn't really common, and it cost extra. OTOH I'm in that age group. I dropped my landline a long time ago, and I never answer calls on my mobile unless the caller is in my address book. I don't have voice mail either. The habit of answering the phone was not hard to stop, there was a bit of FOMO (if you can call it that) for a while, but every time I answered such a call it was a scammer or a survey or some other nonsense so that's pretty much gone away. Maybe for those that are truly elderly it's just something to break up the boredom of sitting at home.
- pwg 3y ago
  It is worse than that. For those old enough to remember, at least in the USA the old Bell System ad's from the 50's and 60's were to be sure to answer all calls within three rings. That 'within three' part got burned into the minds of the generation that is 75+ now, which is why so many of them treat a ringing phone as 'absolute number one priority'. Me, I heard the #*$&$ thing ring so much growing up, with 80-90% being sales calls, that I can listen to a phone ring, ignore it, and go on about whatever it is I was doing that the caller so rudely wanted to interupt.
  - SoftTalker 3y ago
    No I don't remember that. In elementary school at some point we had a little lesson on using the phone, how to answer, what to say if your parents weren't home, etc. They told us it's rude to let the phone ring more than 10 times if you are calling someone. I don't remember anything about answering within 3 (or any number) of rings.
  - steanne 3y ago
    i wonder if the within-three-rings push dates to when there were actual operators connecting calls. their employer would not want them to be spending a lot of time waiting.
- red-iron-pine 3y ago
  > I don't have voice mail either. isn't that standard for most providers? plus, even if most of the calls are scams or pointless, some might not be, and I'd rather get a message than not.
  - SoftTalker 3y ago
    I just mean I never set it up, and I never check it. I don't even know how to check it, or whether it's recording messages or not.
BizarreByte 3y ago
> I can’t understand is that she treats every land line phone call as the highest priority thing in the house. She will drop everything to answer the phone. I'm 30 and haven't been able to break myself of this. When I was a kid scam calls just were not a thing where I lived and if someone was calling it mattered. Absolutely nothing took priority over the phone.

SoftTalker 3y ago

It's what we all grew up with if you're older than about 50. The phone rings, you answer it. It's a habit. Even caller id wasn't really common, and it cost extra. OTOH I'm in that age group. I dropped my landline a long time ago, and I never answer calls on my mobile unless the caller is in my address book. I don't have voice mail either. The habit of answering the phone was not hard to stop, there was a bit of FOMO (if you can call it that) for a while, but every time I answered such a call it was a scammer or a survey or some other nonsense so that's pretty much gone away. Maybe for those that are truly elderly it's just something to break up the boredom of sitting at home.

pwg 3y ago
It is worse than that. For those old enough to remember, at least in the USA the old Bell System ad's from the 50's and 60's were to be sure to answer all calls within three rings. That 'within three' part got burned into the minds of the generation that is 75+ now, which is why so many of them treat a ringing phone as 'absolute number one priority'. Me, I heard the #*$&$ thing ring so much growing up, with 80-90% being sales calls, that I can listen to a phone ring, ignore it, and go on about whatever it is I was doing that the caller so rudely wanted to interupt.
- SoftTalker 3y ago
  No I don't remember that. In elementary school at some point we had a little lesson on using the phone, how to answer, what to say if your parents weren't home, etc. They told us it's rude to let the phone ring more than 10 times if you are calling someone. I don't remember anything about answering within 3 (or any number) of rings.
- steanne 3y ago
  i wonder if the within-three-rings push dates to when there were actual operators connecting calls. their employer would not want them to be spending a lot of time waiting.
red-iron-pine 3y ago
> I don't have voice mail either. isn't that standard for most providers? plus, even if most of the calls are scams or pointless, some might not be, and I'd rather get a message than not.
- SoftTalker 3y ago
  I just mean I never set it up, and I never check it. I don't even know how to check it, or whether it's recording messages or not.

BizarreByte 3y ago

> I can’t understand is that she treats every land line phone call as the highest priority thing in the house. She will drop everything to answer the phone. I'm 30 and haven't been able to break myself of this. When I was a kid scam calls just were not a thing where I lived and if someone was calling it mattered. Absolutely nothing took priority over the phone.