Playing ‘Phone Stack’ for My First Yakima T-Giving Dinner!

The problem? We are addicted to our devices. The solution? Dishes.

Last year we hosted a Thanksgiving dinner with friends and family. Like many of you, we have people in our lives who are addicted to their devices. It should be noted, I am not an “anti-device” guy. Like anything else, our devices are tools. It’s how we interact with them, that can be the problem. With that being said, we have a, “no phone at the table policy” at our place. This goes year around for us – not just the holidays.

For Thanksgiving last year, we debuted “Phone Stack.” Everyone invited knew about the rules and were committed to it playing. Here’s how it works.

At Dinner-time, we ALL are going to pile our devices in a basket right next to the turkey. Once in the basket, whomever reaches for their device first (usually out of force of habit) during dinner time, will have to do solo clean up. Dishes and all. You must leave your ringer on.

The Rules:

1. During the hour long (or determined amount of time), if a device rings in the stack or basket and someone answers it, they get to do dishes and clean up – SOLO. Next one to answer, will have to help clean up. And so on.

2. Dinner is "over" when Patriarch/Matriarch at dinner, says so. They get the final say. That's when devices are available again.

3. If you opt out, you must silence your device, keep it put away and respect the table by walking out to take a call if needs be.

After dinner is over, it’s a sight to watch everyone go in their respective corners like boxers in between rounds, checking their messages. The loser last year was my wonderful niece who reached for her phone when it dinged out of habit! BUSTED!! She was a trooper and cleaned up our mess with a little help from Grandma.

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So this year, to make it more interesting, I set two "generic" alarms to go off on my phone (we’re an iPhone family, so this will burn someone) buried in the pile of phones set to go off about 30 mins. apart, hoping to get someone to jump. Am I wrong bait someone? Prolly. Do I care? Nope. I loathe doing dishes.

All My Best,

The JimShow