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Honest of Pete, and I mean no disrespect to Pete here, but what is it about when parents get on the phone and try to talk with someone, the kids always act up?

This happens so many times when my wife tries to call me at work and talk about things. I know, I know have her go to another room (works partly), till one does something to the other and they're screaming and she has to go out and see what's happened. Or they come and find her and knock on the door outside...Is it all about attention? I'm sure it is, or is it something programmatically wired into a kid's system to get the parent upset?

My wife's on the phone with me as I type saying how good the youngest one's been all day, and then BOOM...correction here, don't do this, don't do that....

No wonder parenting and alcohol are mentioned in the same sentence!!!

Thanks for listening....League??? Do you put duct tape on the kids and tie them up when you or your wife need to pick up Ma Bell?

Funny. Sort of. My wife and I were talking about this yesterday. I think it's an attention thing that the kids need.

Ok, coming from a former pain in the rear. It's about attention. My sister and I would always wait until my mom was on the phone to start a fight to get her off the phone. Plus we had more important phone calls to make anyhow, or at least we thought they were more important.

Who says your a former pain in the rear?

Every one of my girls' life crises happened when I was on the phone, in the shower, or "indisposed". I always assumed that it was an attention seeking device. And yes, I think a kid's radar is tuned in to the most inopportune time to create a ruckus. What better way to control their parents! I do believe insanity is inherited - you get it from your children.

Feeling a lot better about it all, knew my GR family would share in this with me....

I remember asking my mother one time when I was totally exasperated with my girls, how she didn't keep from killing me and my brothers to put us out of HER misery when we were younger. She told me that she felt it would be better served to let us grow up and have children of our own.

No GAH, duct tape isn't necessary. My child knows better.

This thread reminds me of a certain Denis Leary rant about his kids. I can't find the exact quote anywhere, so I'm downloading Lock 'N' Load right now.

But my own paraphrase from my memory: "Dad! Dad! Dad! Dad! Dad! Dad! Dad!" "...I'm on the phone." "Oh... Dad! Dad! Dad! Dad! Dad! DAD! DAAAAAD!!!!" "WHAAAAAT?!?!! I'm on the phone! I know is a bad word but you're making me say it!"

Got it.

"The phone is something you cannot explain to children. I don't know what age it is when they finally pick it up, probably when they start dating, maybe that's when it is. But so far none of the kids in my family have figured out the phone, even the idea or the theory of the phone. It's always when you're ON the phone that they wanna talk to you! And you're probably talking to some distant cousin in Calarnia, it's probably 17 million dollars a NANOSECOND, that's when they walk up to you, when you're on the phone, 'Dad, dad, dad, dad, dad, dad, dad!' 'I'm on the phone.' 'Oh... Dad, dad, dad, dad, DADADADADADAD DAAD!!!' 'What?!?! I'm on the ing phone! I know is a bad word but you're ing making me say it! How many times do I have to explain this thing to you? Are you gonna grow up to be 35 years old, go up and go, 'Boss, boss, boss boss, boss, BOOOOSSSSSSSS!!! BOSSBOSSBOSSBOSSBOSSBOSS! Boss Boss BOSS!' 'What?!' 'Can I have a cookie?' '...That's Leary's kid, I want him fired! He's the guy who put the sandwich in my VCR last week, FIRE HIM!'"

So yeah that was pretty extensive, but it's quite good. Just brought it up because this thread reminded me of it so much.

Thanks for sharing that with us Greg..that's some good stuff there. I almost want to tell them, "I'm talking with the Boogie Man right now and if you continue to interrupt me, he said that tonight he's going to pay you a visit while you sleep -- so be sure to let me speak with him -- as you don't want him to visit tonight, right? Kid nods head -- so unless someone is not breathing it would be a wise thing to let me finish with him and I'll be with you shortly...thank you!"

I finally came on a cure for incessant tattling with my little girls. I told them that if it didn't involve something broken, burned, blood, guts, or gore that the tattler would be punished. After a couple times of the tattler being punished, I quit hearing about every time one of them "breathed" on the other. Of course when they get to be teenagers, you usually only find out what their really up to through tattling and that's only when one is mad at the other.

That's a good angle on it...we're amongst that with my little ones right now...I'll exercise that option where appropriate...of course, there are definitely times when the tattler provides information of use in that someone may be putting themselves in a position of getting hurt, so the tattle is of use as another pair of eyes.

"I'm talking to the Boogie Man?" Are you serious? If you are you can forget those golf vacations you have planned. You're going to need the money for your kid's therapy!

Now you're just trying to make me feel bad when I take your money for the Debet! Really GAH, what kind of parent bets his kid's therapy fund?