Well, if parental authority is off the table and technological solutions are the only type permitted here, I would have to say the only legal response is to either eat in a basement deep underground where signals don’t reach or eat in a Faraday cage. Good luck getting your kids into a wireframe cage.
Oh my god! You guys are geniuses! In my 15 years of parenting I never thought to tell my children No! Wow! I tried it tonight and the kids all said in unison, “Ok, Daddiekins, whatever we can do to make you happy.” Then after dinner they sung “So Long, Farewell” from the Sound of Music as they went bed one at a time. It was so cute!!!111!
I have a feeling the snarky comments are from people who aren’t parents of tweens. Yes, asking for cell phones to be turned off does work. And guess what? It’s actually the method currently in place in the Filmore household. However, it leads to lots of grumbling and a less than enjoyable family dinner time.
But hey, thanks to everyone who decided to derail this into a thread about parenting methods. I think we learned a lot.
Well, then, as a few people (myself included) the only ‘device’ you’re going to come up with is a faraday cage. Beyond that, I don’t believe there is a legal way of actively blocking/jamming a cell signal and most electronic devices go out of their way not to do it. Surely you’ve seen that little FCC sticker on the back that says your device won’t cause harmful interference.
You got all the practical,technical advice there is. Sure, there was some snarl (pretty mild and good natured IMO. This is the internet, remember ), but you did get your answers.
Then you FAIL at sarcasm in your OP. Just saying. wink wink
Forgive me. I didn’t realize people would latch on to the little bit of background I added so I didn’t make it too verbose. The full story is that the texting in the summer had not been too bad even at dinner time. But at school came closer, the texting really ramped up until it was ongoing through dinner. Then we said no texting at dinner. One of our daughters has some autism spectrum issues and doesn’t always take to hearing No very well. This led to a long crying meltdown about how we don’t love her and how her life sucks etc etc. While all this is going on, I was thinking how much easier it would have been if there was a dead spot in the dining room. Yes, sidestepping the issue. Passive-aggressive you might say. Oh well. As a parent you have to pick your battles. A dead spot in the dining room is just the way it is instead of having to hear how I’m “THE WORST PARENT EVAR!!!”.
But there are cases of normal, unmodified electronics interfering with each other. If I put my cell phone near my speakers, I’ll hear interference on the speakers. If my monitor cable is near my microphone cable, the microphone will pick up interference. So some normal electronics do interfere with each other. But it sounds like there’s not a normal electronic device which interferes with the cell phone signal.
One thing you have going against you is that cell phone engineers have been working hard for years/decades at making cell phones work in bad environments, with interference and multipath and whatever else.
Ahh, fair enough. I can certainly see your point of view, and sympathise.
Si
Not only was that awesome, it really explains why it’s taking longer than we thought.
People keep mentioning a Faraday cage. What would it take? Could it be easily done while redecorating? Remodeling?
you can get metallic foil wall paper.
There are unlikely to be very many appliances that inadvertently jam cell signals because that would be a pretty big design flaw. About the only one that does it because there is no way around it is… cellphones. Enough active cellphones in a given area can cripple a tower and prevent additional calls from going through. So simply buy ~100 working cellphones and have them all call toll free numbers during dinner is one solution.
On the DIY front, faraday cages are one solution but not the only nor the easiest one. Cell phone jamming is relatively simple if you just broadcast at the right frequency with enough watts. Cellphones operate at the -50 to -100 decibel SNR range so a 5 watt jammer would pretty easily overpower a tower. Simple jammers are about the easiest pieces of electronics to build and schematics are readily found.
Cell phone blockers are illegal?
Reported
He doesn’t have to knock out communications for the whole neighborhood. There are narrow radius jammers that only work in a 15 foot range. They’d be suitable for the dining room and there’s only a small chance that his kids will turn him in to the FCC.
Assuming that he can find a source on the web, he’s all set.
[QUOTE=Paul in Qatar]
Cell phone blockers are illegal?
[/QUOTE]
In the US, yes.
I was just thinking of the decorating route. Foil wallpaper is just so… eugh… Do they even still make any? I was thinking of “magnetic” paint. You can transform any wall into a magnet-holding surface with a few coats of the stuff. The main problem is cost - about $80 per gallon and you’d need at least two coats. Then, you can cover it with whatever normal paint you want.
A couple hundred dollars later, after putting two or three coats on the walls and ceiling, you might have managed to at least make cell reception spotty, but no guarantees it will be successful.
There are tons of legal devices that interfere with cell phone conversations:
blender
lawn mower
leaf blower
big ass stereo
jackhammer
vacuum cleaner
Now, these may not work against text messages, except for maybe the jackhammer. For that, you should probably use a visual distraction, like the TV or some strippers.
I do agree with the poster above who suggests handeling the situation differently.
There is a trend at restaurants i’ve heard of that may be usefully adapted. That everyone puts their cell phone in the middle of the table, and the first one to go for theirs pays the bill. Perhaps you can implement this with who ever goes for theirs has to do the dishes.
To answer the people asking why it’s a personal insult:
Because, as you are well aware, your comment is calling him a bad parent for not doing things the way you would, and thus is a comment on his character. This is GQ, and the point of this forum is to answer the question given and not to comment on the poster’s character.
Stop being disingenuous.
I know it’s not an answer to your question, but have you considered contacting the mobile phone provider to have texting turned off between the hours of 5:00pm and 7:00pm? Your daughter might not figure out that you are behind it and even if she does, there is likely to be a lot less drama since your daughter will be much less tempted to “limit test” or to subconsciously try to create drama by pulling out her cell phone at the dinner table.