Family meals out can sometimes be testing and it’s tempting to either pass the kids an iPad to play on or take a sneaky look at your phone in between bites of food.
But as we all know, mealtimes are one of the best opportunities we get to bond with our kids and talk to them about their day.
A Pennsylvania café is attempting to help families enjoy meal times together by offering a 10 per cent discount to families who are willing to put their phones away for the course of the meal.
Sarah’s Corner Café started the initiative a month ago and so far, it’s been successful.
Best of all, the café will bring over games for the kids to play so they won’t get bored waiting around.
The café have set up “family recharging stations” at tables where you drop your phone into a basket.
“They let the server know and the server will bring over a basket with old fashioned Hangman and Tic Tac Toe and pencils because those games are interactive instead of colouring, which is solitary,” owner Barry Lynch told ABC News.
If families make it through the meal without looking at their phones, they’re rewarded 10 percent off their bill.
“A lot of people are starting to do it and it’s taken on a life of its own,” said Lynch. “I get huge feedback.”
He decided to introduce the offer after observing how some families acted during mealtimes.
“There’s one particular family I knew used to come in on Sunday for breakfast after church. I knew the dad and the mom and two kids and we’d always say ‘hi,’ ” he explained.
“Every time I went over, one or two of the kids and sometimes the parents would be on the phone. I also knew the dad would commute to New York for work every day, which takes a lot of time.”
“I asked him about that and he said, ‘Yeah, I still do it. It’s so nice to be together and these breakfasts are rare.’ "
"And when he said that, I thought, ‘Oh wow. Something is going on here. I need to do something.’ ”
Lynch is thrilled by how families have embraced phone-free meals and enjoy time together.
“I just thought it was such a shame not to have more time together just to talk,” he said.
“Look at my eyes. I’m here with you. How was your day?”
What a fantastic idea, meal times are so much better without phones.
