The New Phone Line

It seemed liked a good idea at the time. It seemed worth the few bucks I was out per week for the investment. You all know I meant well. I kept peace in the family and stopped the war. We had such a wonderful truce going. We all rejoiced in the new phone line!

Finally the kids could talk on the phone while I was on-line and I could talk on the phone when they were on-line! And sometimes, people could even get through on the main phone line again. And when the kids were on-line and on-phone, I got to clean house!

There was finally ... Splendor for All!

I got a brilliant idea when the telephone man came to install the second line. I thought ... it'd sure be nice to have access to both lines in my bedroom ... so I got a 2-line phone and had both lines connected to the jack in the master bedroom. Being the cool mom that I am, I told the teens, that IF the main line was in use AND nobody was on-line on the pc, THEN the second phone line could be used for outgoing calls ONLY as long as "nobody" wanted on-line OR until "somebody" wanted on-line. They ALL understood the new rule.

It worked great for the first day ... except they kept knocking me off line when they'd try to use the 2-line phone in my bedroom. Teens aren't USED TO pushing buttons just to use a phone. Invariably, whenever I was on line, they'd use the main line in my bedroom.  But like, they'd get really confused, you know, and like, well, you know, press the wrong button, you know, and like, whoop-sie, disconnected!  I tried to be understanding, after all, they are my OWN children ...

I came home from the store on Day 2 - when it happened...

I rushed straight for the pc to get back on-line with my AzTeC Free-net. It'd been over a half hour and I was into withdrawal BIGtime. There on my monitor was a note from one of the teens telling me NOT to get on-line because she was on the main phone line and was using the second line to do "3 way calling".

Amused, I chuckled to myself as I pranced merrily into my bedroom. (Withdrawal will do that to ya) "Gee, is this teen ditsy or what?", I thought to myself!  She doesn't know I got a no 3-way calling, no call waiting, no voice mail, no call forwarding, NO FRILLS second phone line!

And there she was, as pompous as can be, chatting away with 2 other friends, using both telephone lines!  Gleefully, I told her it was IMPOSSIBLE to use 3-way calling by using both lines because we did NOT have that type of service on the phone. She immediately replied in her most all knowing tone of voice, "But Mom, you're  w-r-o-n-g (again). First ya dial friend #1 on line one. Then ya dial friend #2 on line two. Then ya just punch this conference button and ..."

Great Ideas Sometimes Backfire!

The Saga Continues...