August 7, 2011

PUT AWAY THE CELLPHONE!!!

How often do you take your family out to eat, and you watch the people having dinner at the tables surrounding yours talking or texting on cellphones the entire time while they are supposed to be enjoying time with the person or persons they are with at the time. This happens to my family nearly every time we go out to eat. I will admit that I used to be bad at this. I would receive a text during dinner, and instead of ignoring it and texting back later, I felt the sudden need to answer the text right away when in fact, the answer to the text could have waited. My son would yell at me to put away my cellphone, and I think I am finally understanding why it was bothering him so much. When we go out to eat, that is special family time only for us unless we invite others to join us face-to-face NOT via text! Dinner is a time to put away the cellphones!!!

When I was growing up, my family was not allowed to answer the telephone during dinner time. These were the days long before cellphones and computers. Dinner was family time, and not much was going to interrupt this time. We need to get back to these types of days! Last night my family went to a local fast food restaurant, and while my husband, son, and I were eating our dinner, we were observing the family at the booth next to ours. The entire time the father and mother were looking down busily playing or typing on their cellphones. The three daughters sat at the table silently not daring to interrupt their parents while they were clearly busy playing with their phones. The one daughter did lean over at one point to ask her father what game he was playing. I sat there mesmerized and in deep thought while thinking that this family was missing out on some very special bonding time. This family could have been making memories with each other or discussing how things were going for each of them. Instead, they all sat there in complete silence not saying a word and not even looking at one another. How sad, this family missed out on precious bonding time.

Just now, I had to walk away from my blog in order to eat dinner with my family. Dinner is a nice time that we spend together to talk about our day or what is going on in the next couple of weeks. For instance, tonight our topic of discussion was my son's orientation at the new high school he will be attending this year. It is really hard to believe that my baby is old enough to be attending high school. It just seems like yesterday he was starting Kindergarten. This is another reason to turn off your cellphones during dinner time! Time goes by so quickly that our children grow up quicker than a blink of an eye. I know I don't want to miss any precious time with my son due to a cellphone or any other electronic device.

Make it a habit of turning off your cellphone during special times during your day. My family's special time happens to be dinner time, so we do not need or want any unwanted distractions. Spend time with your loved ones, and don't spend it hiding behind a cellphone. The world will be able to get on without you for 45 minutes or an hour, so turn off your cellphones!!!