I have noticed at family get togethers that my brother (dad to 6 teenagers and older) passes a basket around into which everyone places their cell phones). What a fantastic idea! Everyone actually does things like play cards and converse with one another. Heck, we even all crawl around on the floor and still play Lego at my dad's house.

This wasn't a problem when my kids were still at home. I didn't allow them to have cellphones to begin with. They were all heavily into sports and other extracurricular acitivities and I expected everyone to have a job by the age of 14. When we did get together, there were no distractions to communication.