There’s a certain grandson who just turned nine years old in September. This certain someone is completely immersed in the electronics age. I am sure he has taught me a few tricks about my iPhone apps. When this certain someone came over to his Grandma’s house for dinner on Thanksgiving Day, an idea came along with him. Right before dinner we were setting the table, and certain someone (my grandson, Evan) was helping me get everything ready on the table with all of the silverware, napkins, special glasses, etc.
While Evan was getting the table ready (this year he had graduated to my professional table setter) he told his Auntie Hilary he needed to find a basket to put on the table. Hilary asks him, “What do you need a basket for?”, and Evan replied, “I want everyone to put their cell phones in it.” He did not want any cells phones at the dinner table. And then he added on, “The first person that picks up their cell phone while we are eating dinner has to do the dishes!”
I was completely stunned, wow. Pay attention grown-ups, I think Evan was sending a strong message to all of us that would be seated around the dinner table. Hilary told me yesterday this was all Evan’s idea, no one had suggested this to him at my house. Even Uncle Jim who arrived just as we were sitting down to eat conformed to Evan’s plan. So, no one got their phone back until they were excused from the dinner table. This part of the dinner was a little more formal for us than usual, just so we could make the point with Evan that his planned had worked. I had to excuse the “Big Boys” so my brother could show off his new phone.
As a side note my normal house rule when all of the kids are over for a family dinner is no cell phones at the table. Evan just gave us a friendly reminder not to forget “Grandma’s Rule”. I think an even stronger message here is that the kids do pay attention to what we adults are up to, even if appears they are off in their own la-la land. Just some food for thought while finishing up those Thanksgiving leftovers.