My life is one long adventure, and I've got many stories to tell. I remember most of the big events and moments but some of the everyday snippets of life get lost in all the chaos. When I had my first child, I kept track of all his milestones and sp...
This is a chapter that I had in my drafts when I thought I would start writing this story in the summer. I don't remember when Matthew and Ella learned to use the telephone, but over the summer we started teaching our youngest, Benjamin (then 4 years old) how to use the telephone and had him memorize a few important phone numbers - you know, so he knows how to call his dad or I in case of emergencies, etc.
He's quite good with technology - he knows how to navigate iphones/ipods/tablets, can work our TV (with all the components like AppleTV, gaming consoles, etc.) better than I can, so learning to use the phone was pretty easy for him. For awhile my husband and I got quite a few random phone calls from him while at work or when we're out of the house. He liked to just call us and say hi; he'd hang up and call right back to say something else, etc... So, all is good, and we're happy that he knows how to call us if needed.
So one day after the novelty of making phone calls wear off, and I haven't received a random call from him in quite some time, this particular Sunday morning in the midst of chaos trying to get everyone ready and out the door to head to church on time, I hear the phone ringing and contemplate not answering, but I get to the phone at the last moment.
I answer the phone and am greeted by a 911 dispatcher. She asks me if anyone at this number called 911, of course I say no - there's no emergency happening that I know of. While I have the dispatcher on the phone I'm walking around to see what could have happened - I get to Benjamin's room where he's arguing with his brother and it's there I find out from Matthew that Ben was the one that called 911. I'm furious at this point but still talking to dispatch who wants to connect me to someone at the police station to confirm that these is no emergency. I talk to the police officer, explaining that my 4 year old called 911 accidentally, and then proceed to get a nice reprimand from the officer about needing to teach my son about when to call 911. I found out after the call that Ben felt it was an emergency to call 911, because his older brother "broke into" his room and refused to leave... sigh...
Needless to say, Ben (and my other kids) got a really firm lecture that day, but at least I know he will be able to call 911 if there really is an emergency!
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