Where is Miss Manners when you need her?
Remember when dinning manners were taught in school as well as home? Remember when your mom use to say, “Where are your manners!” when you talked with your mouth full? Remember when it was frowned upon to lick your fingers at the dinner table?
Well, this week I’ve seen it all in a local buffet restaurant. From licking a plate, to licking fingers to licking a whole hand. I thought by the time I got out of there I would be nuts. (It wasn’t just one person, it was several adults and children.)
Do you remember the Miss Manners column in the local news paper? Everything from table manners to dating etiquette was written about. We need that column today! Bring Miss Manners back!
I remember being taught table manners in Jr. High school. Everything from how to put your napkin in your lap to which piece of flatware you used first. In fact, table manners was one of my favorite lessons.
My folks expected good dining manners at home so the Jr. High lessons were just a bit of frosting on the cake. At home, we didn’t slouch or put our elbows on the table. The proper way to cut our food with a knife was taught in our home. In other words my folks taught and expected proper table etiquette.
As I look around and see a decline in general respect, it has certainly spilled over to the dinning room, at least at the restaurant this week.
However, in perspective, more folks were on top of their dinner manners that day than were not. Most adults and children were respectful and showed excellent table etiquette. Thanks goodness.
It was a reminder to me to be aware of my own table etiquette and general respect for myself and others. Teaching table manners begins at home and example is the best teacher. I don’t want my grands witnessing poor manners and table etiquette from me.
Just a little rant for today.
Til Later,
Kathy Griffiths
P.S. Are you Miss or Mr. Manners in your home? I bet you are!
4 responses to “Where Is Miss Manners?”
Proper dining etiquette is very important to me. My children are still young (8 and 5) and are still learning. It is a constant struggle to try and teach them a more polite way of eating.
I did find a website while researching that was very helpful. The site is http://www.modern-manners-and-etiquette.com/proper-dining-etiquette.html
Manners are communication. When you open a door for someone it is a greeting and tells the other person you care.
Good table manners make for easy conversation..your attention is not on someone chewing in your face. Of course if your were a family of bad table manners, I suppose no one would notice that you have or haven’t licked the plate.
Nana, you are SO right on this topic! I am absolutely appalled every day at the lack of manners that people not only SHOW toward others, but that they teach their children as well. I used to love reading etiquette books growing up, and remember my parents banging the elbow of an unruly child on the table if that’s where it was left. I agree. Maybe YOU should write a manners column and have it published in the Trib and Des News. 😉 We definitely do our best to teach manners in our home.
Does anyone remember what used to be called “finishing school”?
You could enroll in a private class or group setting to “finish” what your parents started in regards to learning proper manners and etiquette.
I enrolled myself at age 16, shortly after graduating high school and leaving home to attend radiology training. It was so much fun! But it was a lot of serious hard work, too. I can still remember learning to walk gracefully while balancing a book on my head.
And, of course, table manners were included in the curriculum.
Melanie