Do your older children hide and wait for the minute you get in the middle of something important to "need you?" Well, you are not alone! It is more certain than the sun will rise that if you are having a key client engaged in conversation, someone will want your undivided attention.

I can remember the day I was seated with a Four-Star General's wife and one other gal having a very "High Tea" kind of very formal luncheon. You know the kind where the "butler" has a starchy white towel over his arm. There were actual flower petals floating on our soup for Pete's sake!

The "butler" came in with a phone. "There is a call for Mrs. Cannon." I felt my blood pressure drop. "Yes son, what is it?" I asked. "Yes, you may (eat a cookie). Whatever you think son (how many he'd asked!). And son, don't dial this number again until you have first notified the fire department or the police." I hung up calmly.

Now you may not be at "High Tea" but you probably have had something like this happen when you are in the midst of closing a sale or signing a new recruit. I taught my older children that when I was working they should sit down on the floor beside me as a signal. This let me know they had "taken a number" and were needing to talk to me. I could then find a break in conversation and excuse myself, put the phone on mute, deal with the question and return to my call with some sense of professionalism still in tact.

I have noticed as the years have passed that my children knew how to politely get their needs met without jeopardizing my business.

Related Posts:

• How to get your little ones to leave you alone for a phone call
• Play Clay for a HOT Summer Day
• Debbye Meets the KING of CLEAN!
• If you aren’t getting tips for waiting tables, read this!
• “That Never Occurred to Me!”