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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Screen addiction eroding manners

7 replies

Fossie · 29/07/2018 18:55

Family visiting the British Museum today and stopped for food. The place was very busy and there weren’t enough seats at the tables available so we waited. One seat became free and DD sat down. There was table space so the rest of us stood by her and we stood whilst eating and waiting for more seats. Several people, including whole families had finished eating but were glued to their phones and seemingly oblivious of people standing. I was tempted to make passive aggressive comments to perhaps draw their attention to us but was genuinely unsure whether reading/texting after eating is still part of the meal experience. Obviously some may have sat and read a book or paper in the long distant past but I think there is something pervasive about the intensity of people on screens. So, AIBU to think this was bad manners?

OP posts:
Allyg1185 · 29/07/2018 18:58

Yes it was I would never linger at a table where the cafe/restaurant was so busy that people were standing to eat. However could you maybe have approached these people and politely asked if they had finished? Perhaps they genuinely didn't notice

NotAsGreenAsCabbageLooking · 29/07/2018 19:01

I wouldn’t leave a table immediately after eating... regardless of whether I was looking at a phone or not. However, I don’t like phones at meal times unless it’s part of a conversation (ie. googling something we’re discussing).

ProfessorMoody · 29/07/2018 19:02

I have to sit for a while after I've eaten due to my stomach condition and will often read my Kindle on my phone. It's not my problem if somewhere is busy.

Dopplerineffect · 29/07/2018 19:27

I don’t think it’s the phones. I remember this problem in the 80s in a cafe when I was a kid.

Some people just don’t like eating and getting straight off.

Fossie · 29/07/2018 20:07

I think it’s the length of time sat there and how whole families weren’t even communicating with each other that bothered me. We had nearly finished eating by the time the last of us got a seat.

OP posts:
OwlinaTree · 29/07/2018 20:09

You should have sent the children to bagsy a take before you ordered WinkGrin

OwlinaTree · 29/07/2018 20:10

Table not take!!

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