Do you give your parents your cell phone number? Why or why not?

Currently we have 1 land line for our family in general, 1 land line for the daycare, and 4 cell phones for me, DH and our two teens. I've thought about getting rid of the daycare phone and using my cell phone as a daycare phone but I'm not sure I want to be getting DCP calls/texts all the time.

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I don't have a land line, just cell phones for me and my wife. I will of course be giving the cell number to them as its going to be the business line, but I am also going to tell parents that it will be turned off at some point after closing time. If its a true emergency that I need to be contacted, email will still work and answering it is at my discretion.

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I didn't use to give my cell number to anyone but family and close friends.

Now, I have an i-phone and it allows me to have contact lists. I can choose to not accept calls from people on certain lists after a certain time.

I LOVE that feature.

I started giving out my cell number when I jumped on the texting bandwagon and realized how much more streamlined and simple it is to have a parent just text me something when it really isn't all that important or is just something quick.

Anything that requires more than a few sentences and I will pick up the phone and call.

I also text with a couple members here too and that is nice

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I have a land line... It's required for the state pay clients for them to sign in and sign out...

Other than that, I have a cell number all parents have... I've never had a proble with them abusing it though.

Ten I have my text number in my ipad

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I have both. Only give my cell to daycare families. I like that I can turn my cell off and document texts easily where ads with a landline people can call at all hours. Short of disconnecting your house phones there's nothing you can do to stop that.

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I only have a cell phone.

When advertising, I put a google voice number on there that connects with my cell phone.

My current clients have my cell phone number and they will text me to let me know if their child will be missing breakfast that morning quite often. It's very nice for me, as I prefer to not set out all of the food for them only to find that they don't come during breakfast time!
They also text for other reasons. I sent home a notice long ago saying that I will only respond to text messages and e-mails between 7:00am-6:00pm Monday-Friday. I am open 8:00am-5:00pm, so I extended the hours I was available for texts/calls/e-mails. If you text, e-mail, or call outside of those hours then you'll have to wait until business hours.

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I only give my parents my cell #. I don't give them my house number.

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This!

I had a dcp texting me at 11pm, 1am, 5am, etc. until I put in writing that I only accept texts from 6am-6pm, M-F. After that, and it's a 'strike' against them.

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I have an iPhone, and I never knew it had this feature! I will definitely be using it this way. Thanks!!

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I wasn't aware of this feature either until recently.

Here is how

1. Open the Settings app.

2. Tap on Notifications.

3. Tap on Do Not Disturb.

4. Tap on Allow Calls From.

5. You can choose from these options:

Everyone
No One
Favorites

6. You can also choose from the Groups options below the other choices


Hope that helps

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I'm not sure why so many of you are using Google voice? Why are you so paranoid about giving someone your phone number? Just seems odd to me. I have a land line and a cell phone. I use my land line to advertise, but once a parent enrolls I give out my cell phone. I must prefer a "running late" text in the morning than a phone call. I love texting in general so it's just an easier way for most people to communicate during the day, especially if parents are at work. I've never had an issue with someone calling or texting me late at night or anything. Even if they did I sleep with my phone on silent so it would never bother me!

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I use Google because I have had clients try to text me late at night (some as late as after 10:30 p.m.), early in the morning (as early as 5am), on holidays or on weekends again and again. For example on Father's day I had a drop-in DCM email, text and try to call me all day to see if I had room for yesterday. I forgot to turn Google Voice off and was very irritated. It's a holiday and I was spending it with my family. I would have appreciated her respecting this special day (and I promised DH that I would not answer business calls/texts on this day, this is what he wanted as a Father's Day gift. DCM kept texting and texting, calling and calling).

Turning my phone off or putting it on silent does not work for me because friends and family that need to get a hold of me wouldn't be able to if I turn my actual cell phone off or put it on silent. Using Google Voice allows me to not receive texts or calls from clients but still be able to get calls and texts from family and friends. I keep it on so that I can get calls in case of an emergency.

Also I had a loony DCM that always called and texted even after she was not a client anymore. She was always calling trying to "talk" or asking me to reserve drop-in spots for her but then would later not confirm the day before and wouldn't answer calls, emails or texts back and then not show up. I just got irritated and blocked her number.

Another reason that I use Google Voice is because I hand that number out when I fill out any type of information at all. My credit cards, banks etc. all have this number. This prevents my cell phone number and home number from getting unsolicited phone calls from 3rd party companies. If I do get an unsolicited call or promotional calls I can easily block these numbers. My cell phone company only allows a certain number of blocked numbers so this helps out a lot. It's one of the reasons why we use Ooma as our home phone provider instead of the typical phone providers. I like to be able to block as many phone numbers as I need to without having to call my phone company to do it for me or have a maximum number of callers that I can block.

Google Voice helped me out when my DH's ex GF (the girl before me) got a hold of my phone number and harassed me by calling and hanging up, having strange people call me to say that my DH was with them the previous night (when he was in bed with me btw) etc. She called my Google Voice number because that's the number that I hand out generally unless you are CLOSE friends or family so I easily blocked her. We had already changed our house number and she got my Google Voice number from a friend of ours by searching her phone for it (she also got my DH's Google Voice number). TRUST ME ... for me, Google Voice has been more than worth it.

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I give mine, and when I do, I let them know that I prefer text messages or email to phone calls. I don't like parents calling and jabbering for 30 minutes about something that can be dealt with in 45 seconds by email or text.

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I do because my parents find it easier to call me with questions/concerns than to call the center talk to the Director, wait for the Director to call me about their conversation and give me their number. This way, the get the info straight from the horse's mouth. I give the parents the rules about calling me at home after 9 and I haven't had anyone abuse it yet.

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Thanks everyone! I'm usually tech savvy but haven't heard of a Google number before - I'm definitely looking into that.

And BC, I have an iPhone too but didn't realize I could set up different contact lists. Definitely looking into that too!

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I switched my business phone number to my cell about 3 years ago. My daycare parents text me a lot. It also helps because I get phone calls during the times that I am not home from folks looking for daycare. I have received text from some looking for daycare as well. I still have a land line. And I can claim it on taxes.

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I have one phone. Its my cell. It does irritate me to get any text or call outside daycare hours, but for the most part they don't bother me. I would rather not pay the extra for other lines.

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I plan on having a cell phone for private use and a land line for business/daycare related reasons (my old boss did that but she would also give the daycare parents her cell number). I would rather have a landline because if for some reason you can't get a signal on your cell and it's an emergancy... your in trouble!

In my first aid/CPR class (ran by a formal FCCP) she told us its better to make a 911 call from a landline because they can find your location better if for some reason you cannot talk much or cannot tell them your location (such as if you had a stroke, or a heart attack, or if there is an intruder).

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