Do You Allow Tech At The Dinner Table?

Has face to face family time at the dinner table every night completely vanished? Or does your family still have the group gathered around catching up with each other? I know in my household--I'm a step parent to three. One of those lived with his Dad, and the other two with us. And at first, when my wife and I got together-dinners around the table were commonplace. And as time went on and the kids got further into the teen years-it evolved into us seeing them in the hallway or if we stopped at their room, with them eating dinner in their rooms. Which was also a challenge for me since clean-up was all me--to go around like a bus boy toting a rubbermaid tub looking for dishes at every door lol because they didn't deliver dirty dishes to the sink afterward.

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I think for my wife it was just one of those "pick your battles" things. I mean-parenting and that entire journey with your kids is different for everyone. So I'm not here to judge anyone for parenting choices or push what I think is the right way to go. My wife's choice was to allow them to come thru the buffet line in the kitchen, get their plates loaded up and then head to their rooms. I also understand that when you're a teenager, the last people you want to "hang out" with are your parents. But it's also a great time, around the dinner table, to get to talk and to find out what's going on in their worlds. That is--if they CHOOSE to open up and actually speak about anything of substance. Which could also have been a big part of why my wife made the choice she did--they don't REALLY talk. it's teenaged small talk, get thru dinner, and off we go.

How about you? Your household? Same? Different? Comment below and tell us!