Proper cell phone etiquette

Now I'm not miss manners - honest I'm not.  But there is one thing on this planet that drives me completely crazy and it is the lack of manners involved with the cell phone usage of our time.

Please keep these things in mind the next time you are out and about or visiting a friend/relative.

1 - It is rude to carry on a full length conversation on the phone at another person's home.  If you are in another persons home you are assumedly there to see and spend time with this other person (people).  If you are on the phone with someone else that's not very good quality time with the person you are supposed to be spending time with. 

When I was a child we didn't have cell phones yet - or they were in their very early not yet completely necessary stages of life - and most people had land line phones.  It would have been completely unheard of for a guests friend/parent/child to call them on the hosts landline and chat with them for a length of time.  I mean really nobody would find that acceptable.  It is NO different than you chatting on your cell phone while visiting.  The fact that you own your phone does not somehow make this habit acceptable.  It really doesn't.

2 - It is rude when visiting family/friends who have children to yell at the children for being too loud because YOU are on the phone.  If you absolutely MUST carry on a conversation at this exact moment and the house you are visiting is too loud then leave.  Yes.  Really.

3 - It is rude to ignore the person on the other end of the phone in order to talk to someone in the room.  If you don't have the time or attention span to give to the person on the other end of the phone say goodbye and try to fit in a call when they won't feel insignificant because of all the interruptions.

The last two reasons are the main reasons I don't make phone calls.

4 - If you are somewhere public it might be polite to hold off on calls.  Walking through walmart talking to yourself really doesn't make you seem cool and business like - at least not where I live.  It actually makes you seem weird and self important.  Having your phone ring at the library or during a church service should go without saying as seriously rude.

5 - If you are babysitting - no matter your age - it is not appropriate to spend the whole time texting and not interacting with the children.  I would not be inclined to ask a babysitter back if I found them texting on the job.

To be honest, for the most part I hate phones in general, but I especially hate the lack of manners involved with cell phone usage.  On the one hand the invention of cell phones is incredibly handy for emergency situations or if your spouse is at the store and you suddenly remember something you forgot to put on the list.  But overall the lack of common sense manners is beginning to outweigh any benefits for me.