Using mobile phone during dinner has become a very common scenario in dinner times everywhere. With the fast-paced lifestyle, people find it very convenient to continue doing business right up to the dinner table. But this norm is robbing families' precious time together.
For most families, dinner is the only time to keep up with what is happening. As children begin to grow, meet new friends and enter into new things, dinnertime serves as the time to share opinions, experiences and ideas about decisions and matters of daily life it is a social event. However, from parents to children mobile phone has become a big hindrance to dinner family interactions.
A book written by Dr. Post Senning entitled 'Emily Post's Table Manners for Kids (HarperCollins, 2009)' specifically states, "Do NOT use your cell phone or any other electronic devices at the table." Texting or browsing smartphones during dinner simply means you find people in the dinner table less interesting than what you will be seeing in your phone, New York Times reported.
A study conducted by the Boston Medical Center show that parents from 40 out of 55 families were so much into their phones that they hardly spoke to their children. One thirds of them were using their mobiles throughout mealtime that some of the children had to do some stuff to get noticed by their parents.
It helps to weigh the importance of your involvement to your mobiles. If it is work related email and not attending to it on time will mean losing it, then just do what is necessary and have it faced down afterwards or away from the table of possible. Set it on vibrate or on silent. Dinner is not the time to browse the latest on social media. If it can wait until you have finished spending quality time with your family than make necessary efforts to do so.
"Be mindful. Be aware. Both in what you are doing and in what you are teaching your children," said Gene Beresin, executive director of the MGH Clay Center for Young Healthy Minds, according to ABC News.
