💬 Phones stay off the dining table at our house, guests included

This rule started with my father in about 2012, when my brother answered a call during Eid lunch. My father put his spoon down, held out his hand, and my brother gave him the phone. Silence for 10 seconds. Since that day, no phones at the table. Not at my parents' house, not when I moved to Dallas, not for anyone. Guests too. We tell them nicely at the door. Most laugh. 1 or 2 look at us like we're a cult. There's a small shelf by the kitchen door. Phones go there, face down. You can hear them buzz. You don't go. The first few months in our own house my wife hated it. Her family eats with the TV on and phones out. Now she's the strictest one. Last month she made her own brother put his phone on the shelf. He sulked. He also stayed for 2 hours after dinner, talking, which he never does. So. I won't pretend it's perfect. Once my phone kept buzzing during dinner and it was my manager. I didn't go. Next morning he asked why I didn't pick up. I said I was eating. He said okay, and that was it. Nothing bad happened. That's the thing I keep learning. Almost nothing is so urgent it can't wait 30 minutes. The only exception we make is if someone is in hospital. That's happened once. Does anyone else do this? Or is my family just strange? I'd like to know how other people handle guests. Especially the uncles. Every family has 1 uncle who checks cricket scores under the table. Ours does it with his phone inside his napkin. He thinks we don't know. We all know. My father lets it go. Says at 70 he's earned 1 exception.

Holding out a hand and waiting 10 seconds in silence is a very strong parenting move. We have a phone basket by the door too, and my aunt once complained that she needed hers for a call about onions. Everyone put theirs in anyway. I admire the nerve to say it to guests at the door. Do they ever try to sneak the phone back in a pocket?

We have the same rule, phones go in a basket by the door before anyone sits down, no exceptions even for the one cousin who always claims to be expecting something urgent. Took maybe a year before it stopped feeling awkward, and now meals run longer because nobody rushes off mid conversation to check something. My uncle still tries to sneak his phone under the table sometimes though.