Managing Children During Phone Calls

Dear Nicholeen,
We are new to TSG and have five young children ages 6, 5, 5, 3, 1. A few of our family members have significant health issues and I am responsible for their medical care. I'm a stay-at-home homeschooling mom and intermittently during day, I need to speak with medical providers and insurance on the phone. The children can all play quietly and independently and are generally well-behaved in public, but as soon as I am on the phone, they immediately start acting wild. Screaming, throwing, hitting me, demanding food etc. I cannot get it to stop. I do not know how to handle them at the moment because I'm on an important call, so I end up throwing television and treats at them just so they give me a few moments to speak with the doctors, or I hide in the bathroom while they destroy the house and bang on the door. We are expecting our second set of twins, so my own medical appointments are also increasing and I just do not know how I'm going to handle coordinating everything if the older children especially cannot learn to respect when I'm on the phone for a few minutes at a time. Do you have any suggestions on how to deal with their disruptive behavior? I feel trapped.
Thank you,
Kara