I've been working as a host at a popular family restaurant for the past six months. It's been a true learning experience. I've come to learn that you have no idea what it's like to work in a restaurant until you've actually worked in a restaurant. You don't understand how obnoxious it is when a customer insists that their family needs a booth rather than a table because it's supposedly more comfortable, even when there are no booths in the restaurant available. You don't think about how inconsiderate it is to the restaurant staff when you leave your table looking like a war zone, and your server with a 10% tip.
However, beyond all of these things, I've noticed something far more serious than anything else.
As silly as it may sound, families today have no idea how to eat a meal together, and this really worries me.
I hate to sound all parental considering I'm only 19, but when I was a kid, we didn't have iPads, iPhones, iPods to distract us from the real world. We had to communicate, interact, and actually speak to people. In fact, I remember my parents making me order my own food before I could even read.
The number of families who come in for dinner with about two to four kids, each towing their own iPad, is truly appalling to me. I sit and watch family after family eat their food and stare at their phones, not interacting with each other. Sometimes, parents will set up a movie for their toddlers to watch while the adults sit and scroll through Facebook. Where's the intimacy? Where's the quality time? It's almost uncomfortable to watch.
What makes matters worse is that now many restaurants have individual table-tablets used for paying the bill, ordering food, and, you guessed it, distracting your kids from a wholesome family dinner. These iPad-like screens are jam-packed with games and videos for kids to just lose themselves in, and that's exactly what they're doing!
As soon as I seat a family, the young ones reach for and fight over these screens as if they're desperate not to converse with their loved ones. Kids aren't even the sole problem. I see couples come in on dates who just sit there, scrolling through the little screens in their hands. How have we become so encompassed in a virtual world, that we've lost sight of what really matters to us in the real world?
I cannot stress the importance of having an authentic, electronic-less family meal enough. I don't think I would have the social skills and ability to interact with others that I do today if my parents hadn't made it a point to have intimate family dinners several nights a week throughout my childhood. Families need to be talking, engaging in each other, asking about each others' days.
I fear that one day the kids of the future won't know more about their siblings than what's on their online profiles. I can guarantee that the families who make it a point to have meaningful meals and interactions with each other are the families who have the closest relationships.
It's time to put the screens down, log off, and learn to appreciate the company of family again.
