Yes, a landline phone, in case the cordless in the kitchen dies. My DH turns his cell phone off when he's home.

Dogs "and" a S&W...you sound better prepared than I am. :0)

No guns here. Not sure how popular owning a gun is here in Vancouver BC. No landline either but my cell phone is beside me in my hanging basket in the bedroom. Maybe I could download an app that sounds like a gun. :)

OT Does anyone worry about cell phone proximity and cancer besides me anymore? I try not to have the phone too close to me whenever I can. Oh the weird things I worry about...

Cell phone charging by my bed every night - this way I can make sure it's always charged, and it's there for emergencies. i cannot sleep if I don't have it by the bed - years of being responsible for aging parents (now deceased) and a single parent will not allow me to break the habit. We cut the landline several years ago and I have never regretted it.

Trac phone in my purse in the bedroom plus a bedside landline. Extension in another bedroom, down one level in the kitchen, and down another level in the gameroom.

Yes, landline extension in bedroom. Cell phones are off at night.

We've always had a landline extension in our bedroom, a must have when the kids were driving or out, plus I have always been the designated caregiver of the family, so I need to be available 24/7. I also keep my cellphone on my nightstand.

Our "landline" is Ooma VOIP service, connected to a Panasonic cordless phone base station. There's no handset in the bedroom and cell phones are usually left in another part of the house, off or silenced overnight. If someone really needed to reach us, I suspect the sound of ringing handsets in the house would wake us after a couple of calls. It's never happened and it's not something we're concerned with.

Guns in the house? Never. Those of you who find it necessary to play John Wayne or The Terminator might be more comfortable living in a safer area, that's a reliable solution to any danger problem, whether real or imagined.

DH just installed a cordless handset of our landline in the spare bedroom last Sunday. I sleep there now and then and did so that night. Would you believe that first night, well, 4:35 am to be exact, that phone rang. A wrong # it seems. Scared the beegeebers out of me! Can't remember the last time our phone has rung between 10pm and 8am.

Yes. It's the only phone in our house that will work when the power goes out. (other than our cellphones of course).

It seems privacy mode is the most overlooked feature of a smart phone.

Nope, no phone, no cats, no dogs, no TV , no books. I used to have one with the ringer off. There are five landline phones and two cell phones but they are all downstairs except one landline in Husband's bedroom.

Privacy mode is great but what if an important call comes in from a strange number, like the ER or an EMT? Having elderly parents, I have to keep my cell phone on and at hand all the time.

Brushworks, I have recently discovered "Privacy Mode". Works great! We have the same set-up as Elmer; I think without power we still will get 3 or 4 hours of phone service. I charge my phone in the kitchen because if I put it on my nightstand it messes with my clock, causing odd little noises. Scary? Elmer, not everyone can live in a safe area. That said, I'm extremely anti-gun, as you all know. :)

Even safe areas have burglaries. Probably more. Who wants to break into an old dilapidated house with nothing good to steal?

At least in a nice neighborhood your guaranteed a house with some flat screen TV's, computers, gaming systems, art work, jewelry & maybe the keys to the Mercedes in the garage.

Sorry, marilyn c, but pseudo macho things like that sign and the attitudes they represent are SOOO boring and ridiculous. Think of how much better we'd all be if people thought and acted differently.

I had a cap gun and cowboy boots when I was a kid. By my 8th birthday, I was over it. I'm not sure why adults persist with it.

Oh, another reason we keep a landline is that when power is out -- and cordless phones and cellphone are dead -- I can use an old rotary dial phone to call out. (I love calling the power company, phone or internet service to report an interruption -- and being told I should use their website.)

Other than Marilyn, who lives in the boonies, has anyone here ever actually *used* a handgun for protection? How long does it take to load one? (Assuming you do not keep a loaded gun in the house for someone *else* to use.)

Given that only a third of Americans own guns -- and some must be long guns -- who has more than one handgun in the house? Why?

Hey Elmer, you don't know what you're talking about, concerning Marilyn. She has some straight-up CRAZY neighbors, one of whom came right on into her house. Even with my strong feelings, I sure do give her a pass because she does need heavy protection.

Yes I have a phone in my bedroom..how else would I sleep well having grown children and Grandchildren? Who knows when someone might need me?

Marilyn, I need that sign!!!! I LOVE IT!!

Chisue, I've used my gun numerous times for target practice only. And I hope never to use it for defense in my home.

I can only speak for myself. But I was raised around guns my whole life & was in the military. I know how & when to use it, if necessary. Mine is always loaded. However I never chamber the first round. But it's fully loaded after that.

I live alone so there aren't any safety issues here with children.

Plus I probably wouldn't use it anyway. The rule of thumb in the court system is that it needs to be a "fair" fight. Even if someone breaks in. So if they have a knife & I shoot them, I "could" go to prison. No thanks.

My original comment was tongue & cheek. I'd only use it if my life was truly in danger & I had no other options.

If they want my TV that bad, take it. Just don't kill me.

Relax, Elmer. I don't have a sign like that. It is how I feel, though. I know in your world, it's not allowed, but I don't live in your world.

We live in the boonies too & yes we have used one of our guns for protection, not only for the 4 legged intruders but the 2 legged intruder also. Down South almost everyone owns a least one gun. We have 2 guns & 3 riffles. There is no way living where we do you wait for the police to help you. Most everyone in our town knows how to shoot & keeps a loaded gun in their home. A gun has a clip that you can put in within seconds, but I don't know anyone who keeps a unloaded gun by their bedside.

I keep my phone in the bedroom if I have to work. I use it for my alarm. But I set it so only SO calls will ring when I'm sleeping. Anybody elses calls or any texts will be silent. If I'm off and SO is home,I keep it on the charger in the strange little counter built into the hallway.

Scott,I work nights (5pm-5am)and try to keep the same sleep schedule when I'm off. I have always been a night owl and appreciate the peace and quiet of the middle of the night. It's when all my chores get done too. And if I have an appointment, I always ask for the first one,so I can get it over with and get back to bed.

So only Marilyn has even *held* their gun to 'impress' an intruder?

I'd thought you were supposed to keep gun and ammunition in separate places, but some here say 'everybody' has a loaded gun at the ready. That scares me more than the 'trolls under the bridge' (all the bad people out there, somewhere).

I will grant that I live in Safe Suburbia, by choice -- and not in the The South either.

I've sometimes thought about what I might have done had I come across the burglar who stole my jewelry, having entered our home through an unlocked door one evening -- *while I was in the bathtub*. If I'd had a gun, would he have taken it and injured or killed me? Would I have tried to wound him, but ended up killing him? How would I justify taking a life to preserve some jewelry? How long would it take me to get past that?

No land line, and we both keep our cell phones near us mostly all the time, including charging them on our nightstands. Late night calls haven't been an issue, thank goodness. As for security, we have our dogs. I trust them to alert us if anything goes wrong while we're asleep. They have big voices when upset and would scare off petty criminals. We've been blessed to live in very safe areas of the country, so I don't worry about serious crime any more than I worry about being hit by lightening. It's a big country, so I don't mean to come across as critical to responsible adults who feel guns are important for their personal protection.

I have no cell--I am a dinosaur --but do keep the old land line next to bed, and plug in when there is a thunderstorm or ice storm warning so I can call the power co. Otherwise leave it unplugged so I am not alarmed by ringing of robo-calls when I am sleeping. I have lost everyone I could do anything about, so no longer worry about emergencies. Have a modern plug in phone with multiple sets I can use otherwise.

I am afraid of guns too. My nana used to sleep with one under her pillow. When I stayed with her as a kid back in the 60s I begged to sleep somewhere else and ended up on a cot in another room. I too have a dog with a big bark, who has at least once scared off a burglar.

One of my portable phones is right by my bed so I could call 911 if help was needed. Hubby removes his hearing aids at night and his bedroom is far from mine, so even if I screamed he would not hear me.

No, do not have a phone in bedroom, its bad enough to be woken up to blasting phone ringing in another room, don't want it beside me.

Besides I let the answering machine take care of it.

Just my cell phone....it goes where I go.

Yes!

No. When we moved into this house in '99 there was no place for a land line. Once cell phones entered our home we were pretty strict about no phones after 10 so they all line up in the kitchen. I have had maybe two middle of the night calls I NEEDED to know about in all these years..and I was up for them. The idea of being tied to a phone rankles me to my core.

I'm with Marilyn. When you live far from town and any form of help, you need to be able to protect yourself. Between dogs and guns, we feel pretty safe. Since a fugitive knocked on our door about 7 weeks ago, at about 6 AM, we're even more aware that even though we have those protections, we are still vulnerable. It was lucky that my husband didn't fall entirely for his "I'm hurt, can you help me?" ruse and had a pistol in his hand when he answered the door. The man WAS hurt but he also didn't inform us that he was running from several different police agencies and that he had wrecked a car across the highway from our driveway and had been hiding in the cold woods for several hours while EMT's extracted and air-evacuated his trapped/injured partner. He spun a tale of being beaten up and even convinced my husband to give him a ride to meet his "dad". If my DH hadn't been visibly armed, who knows what this guy might have tried to do. Once we found out about the search for the man, we reported everything to the sheriff's office and they were able to track him down using the phone number he had called and they then arrested him.

So yeah, having a big barking dog or 2 and loaded weapons is how we stay safe in our woods.

Good grief FlamingO. I would have been terrified as I would have let them inside if they looked injured. Never can be too safe....

I don't keep it in my bedroom, but I should have it near. I have aging parents, and not hearing a late night call for/from them, could be disastrous. Not tied to the phone, but available to them is why I think this.

Those of us that have children or family, if we did not have a phone in our bedroom how would we know if we were needed? We were the parents that 30 or so years ago got the dreaded middle of the night phone call that our son was in a terrible accident and in the emergency room and soon to be life lined to a major hospital. I don't see why people do not have some kind of phone in their bedroom, do you get that many calls at night? We don't.

Sue

Good point Marilyn. If my son ever drives late at night, or moves out, I'll have it in my room then.

My son works 11pm-7am. I always have my phone next to my bed in case something happens to him. He is 29 but he heads in to work around the time those that hit the bars after work are heading home and it makes me nervous. He also works in a place where he does heavy lifting and there is heavy machinery. I would rather have my phone close to be safe than sorry. No one, not even telemarketers ever call that late that I feel I need to have my phone turned off or in another room. If my phone rings that late at night it is something that is important.

I have a wireless handset by my bed. I need to hear the phone if my elderly mother needs help or anyone else needs me. Scott, I hope you don't pick up that gun and put it to your head, mistaking it for a phone. No guns in this house ever.

Here we go again. An innocent question on whether you have a phone in your bedroom and for some reason it has to get changed to a gun control argument. Can anyone explain why? No, stop - please don't bother, that'll just get turned into an abortion issue, or someone will blame Obama or Clinton I suppose. Never mind. I should know better!

Back to the topic and hopefully some sanity, I have a phone in my bedroom but it doesn't work right since the DSL was put in. Filters don't work for some reason. Have a phone in the bathroom too with the same problem. When I moved in I put phones all over. I do not run for a phone. I get occasional calls at all hours from friends and I don't do "quiet time" since I make myself available if a friend/relative has a problem and needs help. Accident, breakdown or whatever happens at any time of the day. I'm more of a night person but have lately been trying to retrain my sleep schedule to be more conventional.

Cynic, get your gun, take that phone in your bedroom out behind the barn and shoot it, and replace it with a cordless handset (with the base station connected to an outlet in another room that works). See, that's how the topics are connected.

My friend said, "what happens if someone breaks into your house in the middle of the night"?

Have you known anyone whose house was broken into during the night? I don't know a single person. Burglars come in during the day when you're not home and they can see what they're taking.

Dedtired, don't worry. I don't have a phone in my bedroom so there's no chance I would ever be answering the gun, plus my gun doesn't ring.

Even in the dark, it feels nothing like a phone, much heavier.

Yep. And it works - even when the power's off.

o j

"Have you known anyone whose house was broken into during the night?"

YES! My SIL was burglarized twice, while she was in bed. Once shortly after she retired for the night, the other time in the wee hours of the morning. And she lives in a residential section that is considered very 'safe'. She says she did the only thing she knew to do, and just stayed very very still, pretending to be soundly asleep. And the police told her that was a wise decision on her part. Don't think I could have done that!

Yes I have a phone with me at all times. My smart phone is clipped to my jeans' pocket or belt at all times during the day, and on my night stand at night. Before I had a cell phone, the land line was on my night stand. Back then it was because my husband was a trucker so I kept the phone close in case he needed to contact me about anything. Also in case one of the kids or grandkids needed me. Husband is deceased and kids and grandkids are grown, but I still keep it close for the same reasons. Also because my kids (and Grands) want me to for their peace of mind. They know my balance is very bad, along with other health issues. I really do feel much safer with a phone within arms reach.

Rusty

Yep, and I am using it there to type this right now. My charging station is here in the bedroom, too. I don't tend to sleep through the night. And so I use it or the Kindle to pass the time.

Right now, the land line is just in the kitchen.

When my parents were still around I did. I wanted to be sure I never missed a "middle of the night" call from them. They have been gone many years now and I don't feel like I need to be available 24 hours a day.

I always have my cell, as my husband does. We have a "landline" through the cable company and it is hooked up to our printer for faxes. I like having the ability to call emergency services....and unfornualtely I have had to call them. if I had anyone who called in the middle of the night for not an emergency I would give them heck.

Oh Elizabeth. I prolly wouldn't open my door at 2am!!

Cell phone on nightstand. It serves as an alarm clock (if I need an alarm), my flashlight (if I need a light during the night), and as my "soothing sounds to go to sleep by" machine.

Yes, landline in the bedroom, cell is usually downstairs at night. Corded phone in a cabinet if needed during a power outage. And, yes, loaded guns and loud dogs.