Hello guys , it's another edition of the Hive learners prompt, okay so seriously this topic feels like something that sounds nice in theory, but in reality, it is quite far fetched in most Nigerian homes or at least in my own home, when people talk about banning phones during dinner time or family movie time, I always wonder what kind of structured household they actually grew up in, because in my house, there is really nothing like a fixed dinner time where everyone must gather and now eat together.
Except during festive periods like Christmas or special occasions, everyone in my house eats whenever they get hungry, there is no we must all sit down at 7pm rule, If you are hungry, you eat, If you are not, you wait, it is as simple as that, so the idea of banning phones during dinner does not even have a solid foundation here, because most times, we are not even eating together in the first place.
Even on some rare occasions where we do eat around the same time, we are usually in different part of the house, someone might be in the sitting room, another person in the kitchen, someone else outside, and me I like being in my room, I enjoy my personal space, and that is where I am most comfortable, so whenever someone cooks, they usually just bring my food to me in my room, and I can decide whether I want to eat immediately or later, depending on my mood.
And me o, when I eat, I am always on my phone, that is just me, see I can be scrolling, watching something, or replying messages, but my phone is always there, nobody in my house has the right to say they want to collect my phone because it is family bonding time, mehnn.... that kind of thing would be really feel strange and unnecessary to us in the house.
See it is not like phones have destroyed our bond or anything, my family and I already have a good relationship, We talk, we joke, we argue sometimes like every normal family, and we still connect without forcing it, our bond doesn’t depend on whether phones are present or not, so banning phones won’t suddenly make us closer than we already are.
Also, you see our phones have become a part of our daily lives, see , they are not just for chatting or entertainment anymore, people do use them to relax, to stay informed, to work, and even to escape stress for a while, taking someone’s phone away, especially an adult, in the name of “quality time” can easily feel like an infringement of personal freedom.
So see here, in my own opinion, quality family time should not be something forced, It should come naturally, If people want to watch a movie together, they will sit together, If they want to gist, they will gist, forcing everyone to drop their phones at a particular time does not automatically guarantee connection, sometimes people are physically present but mentally absent, even without their phones.
So here in my house o, phone usage is not prohibited at all and it can't , and because of that, I seriously cannot relate to the idea of banning phones during any specific family moments, it might work for some families, and that is fine, but for us here, nah.... it is unnecessary, everyone understands each other’s space, and that works just fine.
And at the end of the day, every home is just different, what works for one family might not work for another, and that’s okay.
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