Dinner with a side of emails

"No phones at the dinner table."

On the surface, it seems like such an easy rule to enforce. But there are always exceptions: Like when my husband is on call and keeps his phone with him at all times, or when my phone has dinged eight times in the past three minutes so something is clearly going on, or when we can't remember the name of some show we are talking about and desperately want to look it up, or...

There will always be something. The trick is to remember the rule: No phones at the dinner table.

My family isn't alone: A recent survey by Workfront has found that urgent emails are responsible for ruining family dinner time for three out of five families. That statistic is worrisome for several reasons:

1. It means that too many families are checking emails during family dinners.
2. It means that two out of five families think that it is fine to answer emails during family dinners (I wonder if their spouses/children feel the same.)

In my view - this has to stop. Family time is for talking about our days, discussing funny happenings and planning upcoming adventures. Sometimes we don't have much to share (boring days happen to us all), but the trick is not to turn to the phone as a crutch. Play a game, ask questions from a prepared list or just take turns making up stories. Anything is better than letting work creep into family time.

What do you do as a family to keep your phones off the dinner table? Share your tips in the comments.