Pagers: I bought numeric pagers for the kids. The display screen shows numbers only and no wording. I have to subscribe to a paging network (in my case, with the phone company) and pay extra for voice messaging. When I dial the pager's phone number, I get a greeting that each kid created (they have fun recording their greetings--music and all!). I can leave a phone number or a voice message.
When the pager activates (there is a choice of beeps or a noiseless vibration), the phone number I input displays on the screen. If I leave a voice message, the screen will show the phone number of the voicemail box. These particular pagers don't have a speaker that starts spouting off voice messages.
If my kid is near a phone, he will phone the number displayed on the screen. To cut down on needless phoning back, I have set up some numeric codes. For instance, when I input 9999 as the number to call back the boys know to come home. I use 4444 as a shortcut to tell them to phone home.
This has also worked well when their friends call our house and there is no answer. They page the boys and leave their phone number. It certainly has cut down on the number of incoming calls at our house. There is one drawback, the boys need to be near a phone (unless they get the "9999").
There are alpha-numeric pagers available and they allow you to display written messages. I didn't take this option because they cost a lot more to buy and the monthly service fee is higher.
Phone Home Card: Various phone companies offer this free card under their own product, such as "Call Me Card". This is different than the normal telephone card. It is programmed to dial one number, which would be our home phone number. This avoids the use of collect calls to our house and the need for the caller to have change for a pay phone. This can tie in with the pager when I have paged them to phone home and they are not at a person's house. The cost of the call is included in my phone bill.
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