Dinner with family counts double when you’re actually at the table and not in five group chats.

Being in the room is only half of showing up. A meal where everyone is partly elsewhere gives you the time cost of the evening without any of what the evening was for, and the people you are with feel the difference even when nobody says anything. Presence is what makes ordinary time count.

Try one meal a week where the phones are somewhere else, and let it be undramatic rather than a rule you announce. Ask one question you do not know the answer to. Family time is mostly made of unremarkable conversations, and those only happen if there is room for them.