Family dinner is one of the main things about keeping a family together.
After a tough day at job or school, this is the time when the family sits down as a unit and has a chat on what they did all day and what’s going on in their lives.
However, the generation gap between the elders of the family and the kids is always there. One of the things that annoy parents on the dinner table is using cell phones.
No matter if you are replying to an urgent text, having a chat with someone, or just scrolling through your social media, using a phone is a big no for all parents.
Mathew Abeler made a video “Pass the Salt” that revolves around a dad who is super annoyed on his children ignoring him and being busy with their phones.
The dad, who’s had enough of ignoring, uses a brilliant move to take control of the situation.
The video which now has over 18,500,000 views starts with: “Don’t text at the table kiddos!” At the start of the clip, a family can be seen silently having dinner, not speaking among themselves.
One of the boys receives a text and the buzz of his phone’s vibration breaks the silence prevailing in the room.
The boy who received the text is now fully attentive to his phone, ignoring what’s happening at the table. His parents notice this indecent attitude but don’t say anything and just exchange annoyed looks.
Before the first disruption has finished, the second son’s phone starts ringing with a Carly Rae Jepsen tone.
Their dad is just on the verge of losing it as he looks his sons transported to another dimension, totally unaware of what’s going on in the room.
The mom also looks at the boys with a hint of disapproval in her eyes and exchanges hinted sights with her husband.
The dad wants to know how attentive his sons are towards him. To test their mental presence, he asks one of his sons: “Hey Jake, you mind passing the salt please?”
Jake passes the salt cellar to his father, but wait, it is not the salt one, it is the pepper cellar. Jake is totally mentally absent from the dinner.
At this point, the dad loses it and says he’s going to kill that device, pointing towards Jake’s phone. It’s when the man comes up with a creative response to teach a lesson to his kids.
He takes out a typewriter, literally out of nowhere, and starts typing on it. The way he strikes the keys is enough to express his anger and frustration.
What he does is totally surprising for the boys as well, who ask him: “Dad, what are you doing?”
While the sons are still in awe, the old man says: “Sorry, I must have been a little (pause for effect, angry face worn)… distracted.”
The boys, who have definitely learned their lesson, put back their mobile into their pockets and start with dinner.
The old man once again says: “Pass…the salt,” and this time, he gets the salt cellar he’d been asking for.
Replaced!