Getting out of giving out your number

[krebscout]

So, in the same spirit as my "getting out of a hug" question...

How do you tactfully refuse to give out your telephone number? When it's asked for in a nice way, like, "Do you go to that park often? Want to get our kids together to play some time? What's your number?"

The guy may have genuinely been interested solely in setting up a playdate with the kids and having some friendly adult conversation in the meantime, and I did mention my husband more than once...but some of the other things he said were a little more ambiguous in terms of "Is he hitting on me?"

If you can't tell, this isn't something I have a lot of experience with.

[Tally M.]

Do you mind fudging the truth a little bit?

[krebscout]

Like give a fake number?

Would that make both him and the person whose number it really is feel like they were played by a big jerk?

[Tally M.]

No, I wouldn't give him a fake number, but more like a reason why you can't give your number. Like, you have really limited minutes or something like that.

[Yarjka]

Ha ha, I just asked a woman I met at the park tonight for her number so our kids could get together again sometime. She gave me her number, but I did sense some hesitation.

It's not the type of thing I usually do, but our kids hit it off so well and had so much fun, I thought it was worth going out of my comfort zone for.

[Defy V]

Perhaps you could give him your husband's number or ask for his wife's number.

[Katya]

Perhaps you could give him your husband's number . . .

Oh, I like this. And you could just say something like "My husband is much better about returning calls than I am."

[Genuine Article]

I'd say "Oh I'm terrible at answering my phone" and offer an email address instead. Of course with either one it's easy to block someone if they become a nuisance.

[NerdGirl]

^^^^^ That's probably what I would do.

[Laser Jock]

^^^^^ That's probably what I would do.

Does this mean go up 5 posts and that's the one you're talking about? Or that you're "upvoting" the one just above you a bunch of times? (I've seen people do this before and never been sure what they mean, unless they give some context or quote the idea or something...)

[NerdGirl]

^^^^^ That's probably what I would do.

Does this mean go up 5 posts and that's the one you're talking about? Or that you're "upvoting" the one just above you a bunch of times? (I've seen people do this before and never been sure what they mean, unless they give some context or quote the idea or something...)

I always use it to mean the post right above mine. I just think of them as arrows pointing at what is right above my post.