The Family That Plays Together

I have an app that sends me daily cartoons, and this one from Off The Mark hits a little too close to home for us. We have a strict no-phones-at-the-dinner-table policy, but otherwise there are always as many phones in the room as there are people.

We play games, watch videos, check e-mail, read daily cartoons, and text text text. Our middle school girls average about 4,000 text messages a month, so I don’t see how they have time to watch television. The children check Facebook regularly, and Kelly reads her favorite blogs.

With thes letters, what woud be your next move?

When we visit my in-laws, who have three computers, two iPhones and two iPads, the electronics have to be hidden away before we get there or none of us will speak to them.

At times I long for the good ol’ days, when we had fun-filled family games around the dining room table after supper, but that is just wishful thinking and false memories. The only time we all sat around the table playing games – my parents and brothers – was by candlelight, when there was a storm and the electricity was out. Otherwise we kids were all doing our own things, throwing a ball around, watching TV, listening to records or the radio, reading, sometimes playing games, while my parents did whatever it was they did.

I really don’t remember what my parents did in the evenings, so I guess my kids will have an advantage over me. In 15 or 20 years, they’ll surely remember that we all ignored each other after dinner behind our perhaps inappropriately named smart phones.