“No Phones at the Dinner Table!” Setting Phone and Tablet Rules for Your Home

My kids will literally ask me a question and I won’t even acknowledge them because my head is buried in nonsense.  And then I snap at them because they won’t stop asking me questions.  Can we say, “bad mom?”

This constant need we all have for social media recognition has become an obsession for so many, myself included.  We all want to be liked, but do we really just want people to be jealous of our lives?  After all, don’t we just post the good, happy, extravagant parts of our lives?  The trips?  The new products?  The days we are really feelin’ ourselves – when our hair and makeup are on point?  Our adorable pets?  Our adorable kids (when they aren’t a hot mess, of course)?

Question:  How many of you will clean up the small section of the room that you are photographing your child in because you want your house to appear clean?  This is totally me!

We all know what a lived in house looks like, but I don’t blame you for only sharing the clean moments.  It gives us motivation to get off of our phones and tidy up!

Now that I’ve spilled my secrets about why I am obsessed with my social media apps, it’s time to fix the issue by setting some phone boundaries and rules.

First, NO PHONES AT THE DINNER TABLE.

This is one of my biggest pet peeves – and I’m plenty guilty of doing this myself.  Do we really need to be on our phones at the dinner table, though?  Probably not.  Leave the phone in another room if it’s too much of a temptation.  There.  Done!

NO PHONES OR TABLETS AFTER DINNER

These are obviously just suggestions and may not work for your lifestyle, but this works for our home.  This is our time to enjoy as a family – playing games, watching a show, talking, etc.  When our heads are looking down at our phones we are missing so much.  We are missing our children growing and learning.

You might be thinking, “I watch my children grow and learn all day long.  Momma needs a break.”  Trust me, I get it!  Momma does need a break (like every day).  Choose another time to take a break.  Or take a different kind of break.

NO PHONES IN BED

I don’t really think this one needs much explaining, so I will move on to the next boundary.

UNPLUG ON WEEKENDS

Weekends are major family moments for us, but we also sit on our phones too much while the kids are watching Disney Junior shows.  I love a nice slow morning with bacon, coffee, pajamas ’til noon… But do I really need to be on my phone?  Probably not.  I can give up weekends, but it will be a struggle.

Something that I noticed while attending a few parties recently was that every single one of us had a phone in hand.  We were ready to capture the next cute moment, the drinks we were about to drink, that moment when the last friend arrived and we had to have a group shot (before we forgot).  Sure, it’s fine to get that group picture, but put the phone down for the rest of the night.  Talk to your friends that you probably haven’t seen in a while. 

Provide friends with a basket to place phones in.  I don’t think it’s rude to ask friends to put their phones away during a party.  It might even lift a burden off of them – a burden that they have put on themselves to capture the “perfect” moments and how great their friends are.  It gives us an excuse to let our hair down!

I found this cute idea from MaritzFineBlogDesigns.com.

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