How late do people call your home?

[mazakaal]

I'm just curious about this. Because I would never phone anyone past 9pm except in the case of an emergency. And yet we routinely get phone calls up until 10pm. Last night bil phoned at 11:30! I got out of bed to ask dh, who was up and answered it, if someone had died. No, bil just wanted to chat. Dh has an office line coming into the house and does get late phone calls on that, but I ignore when that phone rings, knowing that it's a business call from CA. I told dh to have bil phone on the office line if he's going to call that late in future so I don't panic.

 

Was I out of line? Do you panic if the phone rings late?

[keptwoman]

9pm here, although we are late to bed folks so up until about 11.30 wouldn't bother me.

I would probably get worried if the phone rang past about 10.30.

[ChristusG]

Late calls panic me too. Our phone rarely rings after 9. Actually, it rarely rings after 8 too.

[MamaT]

Our phone rarely rings past 9:00, but I wouldn't really panic over a call until 11:00 or so. I think it is rude to call someone's home after 9:00 unless it is an emergency.

[Ottakee]

I rarely make a phone call after 9pm. It is then only to people that I know are up later and don't mind.

 

On the flip side, I occ. make phone calls at 6am to a few people. I just know they are up very early and don't mind.

 

In general though I try to keep my phone calls between 9am and 8-9pm for personal stuff.

 

We are early to bed people---quite often I am "shutting up shop" by 9pm and then I really jump if FIL calls at 10:30pm. They nap off and on all day so are often awake late at night.

[pdalley]

My inlaws routinely call at 10:30 or later. I can understand BIL doing it - he's on the west coast and usually pretty well into the vodka at that point - but MIL and SIL are notorious for getting tanked and calling that late. We stopped answering the phone.

 

I was always taught it was rude to call after 9 pm unless it was an emergency.

[Jen in PA]

It is pretty common for us to get calls from family between 10 and 11, sometimes up to midnight. I get worried when the phone rings really early!

[catz]

I'm actually annoyed when people call us past about 8 pm. We're usually trying to get our kids into bed by 8:30 and if the phone rings and they're in bed they jump out of bed to find out who it is. Unfortunately, our phone rings after 8 or 9 enough that I don't immediately think it's an emergency. Usually I'm just annoyed. ;) I rarely answer past the kid's bedtime.

[Princess Peach]

If it was my parents on the caller id, I'd be worried something was wrong if it rang after 8pm. If I don't recognize the number, I don't answer it after 8pm or so.

[TheCoffeeChick]

It's not uncommon for us to get calls or make calls late at night - but only to my dh's parents. They are 2 hours behind us and are night owls. They'd get mad if we called too early rather than late! ;)

 

A late call for us would be past midnight on weekends and past 10:30 on weekdays. Anything later makes me panic. We've had plenty of the panic calls here lately with sick and dying grandparents. :(

[lllll]

..

[thescrappyhomeschooler]

I used to panic when the phone would ring late, but we apparently have a number that is frequently misdialed. We get calls all the time from people looking for other people- some in the middle of the night. It is not too frequent, though, or I would change my number. DH's answering service will sometimes call late, too, if a client insists it's an emergency.

 

That said, if dh is not home, or another family member is ill or traveling, I will get a little nervous if the phone rings late.

[Guest RecumbentHeart]

It's entirely common for BIL to call around 10pm. Perhaps later around the weekend. If the phone rings after midnight, then I worry.

[happypamama]

It's rare for someone to call after 9 pm here, and unless it was an emergency, I wouldn't call someone after that either. (The exception would be my parents; they're always up until after the 11:00 news, and sometimes I don't have a chance to call them until 9. They would not be alarmed by that, but if they called me after 9, I'd probably be concerned that something was wrong.)

[katemary63]

Few people call us past 10:00 pm. But my son, my beloved weirdo with ADD, panic disorder, insomnia and sometimes depression, calls me all hours. Sometimes at 2:00 a.m., just to talk. I do have a mild heart attack until I know it's just him and nothing is wrong, but still, I let him know it's okay to call me when ever he wants. He's an oddball and I just think I need to be there for him no matter what. So I deal. Besides, he gives me many opportunies to strengthen my relationship with the Lord - through prayer! :D

[Mrs Mungo]

I am a night owl. My sisters or very good friends often call me at night after the kids are in bed. We also frequently get calls early in the am.

[NanceXToo]

Hm. Well, we don't have a landline. I would say the latest anyone ever calls ME on MY cell phone is 10 PM, and that's only occasionally (and I don't really like it, I'd prefer to not get calls past 9:30 PM).

 

My husband on the other hand is a very late night owl and his friends know it. So they would call him much later than anyone would ever call me.

 

I personally wouldn't call anybody much after 8:30. If it was like 8:45 I'd feel uncomfortable calling someone unless it was important.

[nukeswife]

It is pretty common for us to get calls from family between 10 and 11, sometimes up to midnight. I get worried when the phone rings really early!

 

:iagree:

My family knows I'm up until 1-2 am so they are free to call, but don't call my house before 10am unless you want a groggy earfull.

 

I'm used to calls at odd hours though because of dh's job. He's basically on call 24/7/365.

[Murphy101]

Most people call by 10, some call by 11.

 

If it is before midnight, I don't instantly worry, tho I am quick to answer just in case and bc the kids are asleep.

 

After midnight, yeah, I worry some.

 

I imagine if my dh or kids weren't safe at home my worry level would be significantly higher.

 

ETA: I regularly get calls between 6 and 8 am. Most who know me know I prefer they catch me before we get started in our school day.

[Parrothead]

Dh's phone rings at all hours. Mine rarely rings. If mine rang in the middle of the night I wouldn't panic. I certainly don't panic if dh's rings.

[justamouse]

Another night owl here who likes to chat late.

 

Everyone knows not to call my house early. :001_smile:

[Laurie4b]

We are late nighters here, so I tell people they can call up to 11:00. We would almost never be in bed before 11:00 and usually well after. A call after we were asleep would alarm me.

 

What ticks me off are calls before 9:00 a.m. I refuse to answer the phone so as not to reinforce it, but it makes me mad--especially on Saturday because it is our only day to sleep in. I've thought about putting a message on the answering machine: " Calls received before 9:00 a.m. will be returned after 11:00 pm, when we are wide awake. " I wouldn't really do that, but I've thought it in a funk.

[Holly IN]

We do panic if a phone rings after 10 pm. We think something bad happened to a relative.

 

Holly

[Giraffe]

I voted rings at any time of the day or night. We have family overseas and they aren't always adept at calculating the time difference. They usually call DH's cell, though, so I don't worry about it, though the 3am calls are kinda annoying. Our house phone rarely rings after 10pm, and that's usually MIL just calling to check on us for some reason or another.

 

I used to jump, now I just hit DH so he answers his phone and roll over back to sleep.

[v-girl]

Before residency, I would panic if the phone rang late. Now, the pager goes off at all hours, his cell phone rings whenever and he returns pages when they come in -- even if we're at the church carnival or if it's 2:30 am. The pager is suspiciously missing this morning. I swear I have nothing to do with that though! The hospital will just route his pages to his cell phone.;)

[alpidarkomama]

I'm routinely up until 1:00 (if I'm good, later if I'm not!). My friends and family know that I'm up that late, and it's a very good time for me to chat since everyone else is asleep. We just keep the phone where it can ring and not bother anyone in any of the bedrooms. Can you do that?

 

In general, I don't call acquaintances after 9 pm. If I know they are up later like me, then we agree it's fine to call late! I would never call after 9:00 if I didn't already know they were generally up much later.

 

I'm not prone to panic, so if the phone rang at 3:00 am, I would probably assume it was a wrong number! I probably wouldn't even hear it anyway. :)

[roxanne23]

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Edited January 4, 2023 by roxanne23

[KrissiK]

I was brought up that unless it's a real emergency, then you don't call people past 9:00pm.

[Greta]

Do you panic if the phone rings late?

 

My husband told me, early in our relationship, that the sound of the phone ringing very late or very early is never the same after you've received that phone call informing you that someone you love has died. I didn't fully understand what he meant until it happened to me. When the phone rings very late or very early, I feel this instant pang of anxiety.

 

Fortunately, my friends and family are curteous enough not to call too early or too late. It's universities, charitable organizations, and political campaigns that call us surprisingly late in the evening. :toetap05:

[LidiyaDawn]

People can phone at all hours if they want ~ but they won't get an answer because my phone is off at night.* ;) (cell - we don't have a working landline as 3/4 of us have cells)

 

*unless I have a specific reason to keep it on...on dd14's babysitting nights, I don't shut it off until she's home.

[dsmith]

We share with the in-laws. My mil gets calls very late.:glare: Usually from my sil. Wakes hubby up all the time, and he needs his sleep. We would never call most people past 9pm, a few people until 10pm. Before we moved in here, my mil used to call me at 1am. She would ring the phone twice and hang up, so it wouldn't wake us up if we were sleeping. :confused: We were in an open floor plan apartment, and you could hear the phone everywhere!

[RanchGirl]

We are late nighters here, so I tell people they can call up to 11:00. We would almost never be in bed before 11:00 and usually well after. A call after we were asleep would alarm me.

 

What ticks me off are calls before 9:00 a.m. I refuse to answer the phone so as not to reinforce it, but it makes me mad--especially on Saturday because it is our only day to sleep in. I've thought about putting a message on the answering machine: " Calls received before 9:00 a.m. will be returned after 11:00 pm, when we are wide awake. " I wouldn't really do that, but I've thought it in a funk.

 

:iagree: It completely irritates me when my in-laws call at 8am. If you have to call when you know people are sleeping, call our cell phones.

[lailasmum]

I never call people past 9pm, unless its a real emergency. My sister and brother call all the time between 9 and 11pm, it annoys me but they have no kids and are both single and stay up late, they don't realise that we tend to settle down by 9. I don't tend to be able to string a sentence together at that time of night either so tend to ignore the phone or answer and ask them to call back the next day.

[Mimm]

I don't keep my cell phone with me at night. My husband does. So everyone knows they can call and text at any time and not worry about waking me. They know to call my husband's number in case of an emergency. It works for us.

[Vanna]

Yes, I guess I'm old-fashioned. I get worried if the phone rings past 10pm or earlier than 7am.

[Nestof3]

I honestly rarely get phone calls much anyway, but really annoys me is when one of my dh's customers calls the house at 7 am. It is a residence and most people know that.

 

People who know me know I stay up late, so I don't mind if friends or family call late. I assume if I were an early-to-bed person, they would know that too and not call late. I know my brother goes to bed at 8 PM, so I don't call him late. He finally realized he shouldn't call me at 6 am.

 

So, I think an appropriate time to call depends on the family you are calling.

[Mejane]

Family know they can call anytime. I do freak a bit when the phone rings late, though.

[mazakaal]

Interesting how many people are used to getting really late phone calls. I know dh would happily get e-mails until midnight. He's a night owl also.

[sheryl]

I answered 9, but sometimes an urgent matter comes up with family and GOOD friends and they can call up to 10, and in fact any hour in a true emergency.

[SonshineLearner]

I always thought until 9:30pm was normal. I try not to call before 9:00am because... well... sometimes you get to sleep in!! ;)

[Jean in Newcastle]

I worry if the phone rings past 10 pm because it's usually dh's work asking him to come in.

[Miss Marple]

Dh is a physician so the phone rings anytime. In addition we have elderly parents (one set is in a care setting) and they typically have issues late at night - wish they could have their problems in daylight hours, but for some reason that is rarely the case.

[Daisy]

If I get a phone call past 9pm, I'm assuming it is either a wrong number or an emergency.

[Sparkle]

We are night owls and most of dh's family are too, so it's not unusual for us to get phone calls up to midnight and occasionally even later.

 

Give me a late night phone call anytime. The ones I dislike are the early morning ones.