Put phones away for the meal
A phone in your hand makes the food compete with a brighter screen. Turn it face down for the length of the meal.
The screen is louder than peas
If a video is the only way they stay seated, keep it rare. The table is where food gets ordinary.
Your phone counts too. A parent scrolling is the same competition.
A short meal makes this possible
Ten minutes without a screen is realistic. Forty minutes is not. Shorten the meal rather than add a cartoon to survive it.
Talk about something in the room. The food does not have to be the topic.
A hard day
One meal with a screen on a terrible day does not ruin a child. A screen at every meal means the food never has to become normal.
The next meal can be screen-free and familiar. Start there, not with a new food and a new rule on the same night.
A sentence you can say
“Phone is down. I’m here.”