Children, manners and good habits from an early age...
Discussion
When I was a child, back in 1843 
a combination of my Mother's hard work, and diligence from my schoolteachers, ensured that I grew up into what I hope is a polite, fairly well-mannered and rounded adult.
Most importantly, I would like to think that I am proficient at two important standards in life - decent spelling, grammar and punctuation, and possessing good table-manners.
We are all diligent on this forum about our spelling and grammar, and I am very grateful for those high standards.
However, prompted by the 'disgusting eaters' thread, reminded me of something I saw on the news yesterday - which annoyed me at best, and made me gravely sad at worst.
The item I saw was about the new free school meals. All good so far - until they cut to the filming of a dining-hall in a school at lunchtime, with Primary School children of an age I would guess to be around 7 or 8 years old.
I was aghast to see that the majority of the children were eating their lunch in the 'American' style; that is, with a fork in their dominant hand, bereft of a knife in the other hand, shovelling food into their mouths in the manner of a mini-JCB arm.
I don't have children, but I DO have two questions about this behaviour:
One - why the hell are the school and the dinner hall staff allowing children to eat in such a flippant manner, and two - the same question goes for the parents?
If I did have children, they would be taught under pain of death decent table manners from the word go. Similarly, if I worked in a school, I would also make it a condition of meal time to either eat properly, or sacrifice the meal / get some other punishment.
It is simply not good enough (plus insert some usual cliche about how the Country is going to the dogs...)
What do PH parents do about this sort of thing??
a combination of my Mother's hard work, and diligence from my schoolteachers, ensured that I grew up into what I hope is a polite, fairly well-mannered and rounded adult. Most importantly, I would like to think that I am proficient at two important standards in life - decent spelling, grammar and punctuation, and possessing good table-manners.
We are all diligent on this forum about our spelling and grammar, and I am very grateful for those high standards.
However, prompted by the 'disgusting eaters' thread, reminded me of something I saw on the news yesterday - which annoyed me at best, and made me gravely sad at worst.
The item I saw was about the new free school meals. All good so far - until they cut to the filming of a dining-hall in a school at lunchtime, with Primary School children of an age I would guess to be around 7 or 8 years old.
I was aghast to see that the majority of the children were eating their lunch in the 'American' style; that is, with a fork in their dominant hand, bereft of a knife in the other hand, shovelling food into their mouths in the manner of a mini-JCB arm.
I don't have children, but I DO have two questions about this behaviour:
One - why the hell are the school and the dinner hall staff allowing children to eat in such a flippant manner, and two - the same question goes for the parents?
If I did have children, they would be taught under pain of death decent table manners from the word go. Similarly, if I worked in a school, I would also make it a condition of meal time to either eat properly, or sacrifice the meal / get some other punishment.
It is simply not good enough (plus insert some usual cliche about how the Country is going to the dogs...)
What do PH parents do about this sort of thing??
el stovey said:
I'm glad Raymond has started a thread about etiquette.
Raymond, as you don't have children but undoubtably are a man of gentlemanlyness, defined by flawless manners and polite masculinity typical of the British gent. I was wondering if you could provide some guidance on the following,
I was recently at a supper with friends and my wife was speaking out of turn, I wasn't sure If I should silence her at the table perhaps with a sharp look or kick under the table or should I wait until we got home?
Also what do other posters do regarding wives who have become slightly drunk and are heading towards social unattractiveness?
I gratefully and humbly accept your kind words, sir.Raymond, as you don't have children but undoubtably are a man of gentlemanlyness, defined by flawless manners and polite masculinity typical of the British gent. I was wondering if you could provide some guidance on the following,
I was recently at a supper with friends and my wife was speaking out of turn, I wasn't sure If I should silence her at the table perhaps with a sharp look or kick under the table or should I wait until we got home?
Also what do other posters do regarding wives who have become slightly drunk and are heading towards social unattractiveness?
May I direct you to this short public information film which will perfectly answer your question.
duffy78 said:
Ray Luxury-Yacht said:
Most importantly, I would like to think that I am proficient at two important standards in life - decent spelling, grammar and punctuation, and possessing good table-manners.
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