A little side note: Our 9 year old daughter came home a few days ago and told us that a parent had “made her” say grace in the school cafeteria. It’s a parent she doesn’t know and the lady was with her son while he ate breakfast in the cafeteria at the same table as our daughter. We are not religious and we don’t pray before meals but my daughter said she just said something along the lines of “thank you for this meal” because this lady was staring at her until she said something. She goes to a public school here in CA and I was angry enough to make a big deal out of it and email the principal and her teacher about it, but I just let it go.
On the other hand, if I am at someone’s home and they pray and hold hands before each meal, I would politely close my eyes and stay quiet to be respectful. I normally don’t close my eyes and I just say “amen” at the end with everyone (don’t know why). However, it would irritate me if they asked me or my family do it their way.