I apologize in advance...

You have to love Cub Scouts.

For some reason my boys have never picked up on the idea that they can answer the phone. I think it's because you have to push "talk" to answer our cordless phones. I don't know. But today Squish and I were working on a Cub Scout requirement that was all about answering the phone, and what you would say if you were home alone.

First off, how many of us leave 8 year olds home alone?

Secondly, if you call us while Squish is learning, then I apologize in advance for whatever is said!

Those comments aside, this is how the discussion went:

Me: Okay. The phone rings, what do you say?
S: hello?
Me: Good. Now what if (trying to think of some scenario where I would leave him home by himself....) I said that I was going to be down the street talking to someone and that you should stay home by yourself, and the phone rings. The person asks "Is your Mom home?" What do you say?
S: I tell them "None of your beeswax" and hang up quick.
Me:"No, honey, that would be rude. You say "May I ask who is calling?"
S: "and then hang up quick?"
Me: "No, you find out who it is, and you remember the name."
S: "I HAVE TO REMEMBER THE NAME?"
Me: "yes, and be nice." "Offer to take a message."
S: I say "May I take a message? and hang up quick."
Me: "No, you offer to take a message and then you write down what they say."
S: "I have to write it down?"
Me: "Yes, and ask them to spell any hard words."
S: "How about if I just hand you the phone?"
Me: "Yes, perfect, but if I'm not home, that's what you do."
S: "And then I hang up quick."

I tried to teach him to be polite in asking "May I ask who is calling?" before just answering questions and to not give out his name if he didn't know who it was that was calling. We were practicing answering the "who is this?" question from an unknown caller...

Me: ring!
S: Hello?
Me: "Hi! Who's this?"
S: "I'm sorry, may I ask who's calling?" (good boy!)
Me: "Um, It's Ted!"
S: "Ted who?"
Me: "Ted Jones, I work with your dad." (We don't know a Ted Jones)
S: "Uh, I don't know who you are so you're going to have to talk to my Mom."

It was said with so much skepticism in his voice, like - "riiiight, your name is Ted Jones! Mr. Bad Guy!" I can't wait until he says that to someone."Um, *insert the name of a family member or dear friend* I don't know who you are, but you're going to have to talk to my Mom or Dad." Which is probably why they were calling in the first place. *grin*