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Comment by vanattab | Hacker News Reader

>Now, I use that to my partner ironically, if I don't want to shout and hurt the vocal cords, just whistle and she knows her presence is requested.

Or you know... you COULD walk over to where she is.

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Yeah, my partner's family have a "family whistle" which is often employed to find one another. It's useful but also feels a little disrespectful.

This made me realize that my dad has a specific whistle that he would use throughout my childhood and even today as an adult, to get the attention of my brother and myself if we were out somewhere. Like a "Hey, we're leaving. Let's go"

My parents had a 'if you hear this whistle, come here', which, depending on the sequence of tones, meant anything from '5 minute heads up before it is time to go' to 'literally drop what you are doing and run to this position'.

It wasn't disrespectful at all. It was a great way to communicate over wider distances than is possible with regular voice, and in retrospect it was impressive how little translation it took for all of us kids to understand which meaning was being conveyed.

My dad used to whistle at us all the time as children and he probably still does when I see him. I probably picked it up from him.

I whistled to an ex SO and they considered it disrespectful. I'm not sure I yet understand why it's disrespectful, not that I consider either opinion more or less correct. I just don't really understand that opinion.

Maybe someone can expand on it?

Or, you know...she COULD walk over to where he is.

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