Help me keep my kids nap from getting interrupted!

February 8, 2008 8:21 PM

Are there any expandable multi-handset wireless phone answering systems that have a system wide ringer mute feature? I'm trying to keep my kids from getting woken up during nap time.

I have kids who nap in the afternoon. Every day before nap I run around the house turning the ringer off on each of our wireless handsets. Occasionally I forget to do this and someone calls, which prematurely ends nap time and everybody ends up cranky.

I don't want do disconnect the phone line entirely because then I'd miss calls. I want to mute the ringer on the base and all the handsets in a single operation and have the answering machine pick up immediately.

Ideally, I'd be able to mute the ringer for a specified time period, so I don't have to remember to re-enable it after nap is over.

Is there a multi handset answering system with a feature like this? I also need a fairly large phone book that is shared among all the handsets and the ability to access the answering system from the base.

posted by Xazeru to Shopping (4 answers total)

This is by no means comprehensive, but I've looked for cordless phones with any kind of centralized anything, and the closest I've ever been able to find to this kind of functionality is being able to listen to the answering machine from any handset. You might be able to work this out with some kind of programmable computer/PBX setup, but as for the commodity phones that you find at Circuit City or Target, I've never seen anything like that.
posted by rhizome at 8:59 PM on February 8, 2008

My 3-handset Panasonic lets me mute or turn down certain handsets, but not all at once. However, I find that I can hear the main phone base when it rings. So I just keep all but that one turned off all the time. During nap time, I can turn down that one or mute it completely.
posted by acoutu at 9:43 PM on February 8, 2008

It would require two steps instead of just one, but at naptime, you could try forwarding your landline to your mobile, then putting the mobile to vibrate only.
posted by happyturtle at 3:23 AM on February 9, 2008

Our phones at work (one base with handset, one expansion handset) have a button on the base that says DND - Do Not Disturb. This shuts off the ringer on both, and I imagine would on any number of handsets. I'm not at work now, but off the top of my head they're Uniden, looks like probably this model. But looks like several brands have this same feature, just look for Do Not Disturb.
posted by attercoppe at 8:32 AM on February 9, 2008