"911, What Is Your Emergency?"

This is how 911 Operators answer a call.
It tells the caller that this number is for emergencies, and you'd better be having one.

I taught my kids early on to not interrupt me when I was talking to someone else by stopping my conversation and saying to the child, "What is your emergency?"
If they replied, "I don't have one." then I could say, "Well then you need to wait, and not interrupt me."

My friend Melinda was over visiting with her kids today, and we had a fun conversation about all the different annoying ways our kids try to get our attention to ask inane questions such as, "Mommy? Mommy? Mommy! MOMMY!! How many cheese sticks do you think I've eaten in my lifetime?"

My kids started making fun of me for my '911 Operator' response, but I stood by it as a way to weed out the stupid reasons kids interrupt adults.

After Melinda and her kids left, I was sitting in the kitchen talking to the girls about a whole lot of nothing.
Harrison came upstairs and said,

"Mommy, if I interrupt you right now and you say 'what is your emergency?' I can say 'Tessa's bleeding all over the place!' That's a good emergency, right?"

Kid #3: "Maybe. Bleeding's not enough. Is she bleeding from the eyes? Mommy always said it's not an emergency unless you are bleeding from the eyes."

Kid #1: "Bleeding from the ear, too. That's a skull fracture."

Me: "What happened?"

Harrison: "She was spinning around and fell on the corner of the table, the one with Paige's laptop."

Kid #2: "My laptop?! Is it okay?"

Harrison: "Don't you care about the blood?"

Kid #2: "Is there blood on my laptop?!"

Me: "Did she hit her head?"

Harrison: "Yes, and it's bleeding!"

Me: "Is Tessa awake? Did she stay awake after she hit her head?"

Harrison: "Yes, she's awake right now. And bleeding!"

Me: "Her face, or her head?"

Harrison: "Her hair. Her head is bleeding!"

Me: "Tell her to come here, please."

Harrison: "TESS!! MOMMY WANTS YOU!!"

Me: "Thank you, Harrison. I'll need my camera... and probably the glue."

Kid #1: (to Tess, as she hands me the camera) "Stupid hurts."