Who taught us table manners?
September 1, 2008
This question came up the other day, while V and I were enjoying a meal at Betty. I must have had my elbows on the table, or something….
Assuming we weren’t finished off at a Swiss finishing school (or is that just where spoilt rich girls in 70s summer holiday TV series went?), the most significant influencers on how we act at the dining table must be our parents. Although I can’t remember specific incidents, I can remember the pride we felt as kids when M&D praised us for not letting them down when eating out in public!
The Grandparents too were great ones for “applying pressure” in this department. To them, table manners (and manners in general) were of the utmost importance… you never knew who you might end up eating with.
So I really had expected by this time to have dined out with royalty, as they implied we would. Shame.
September 2, 2008 at 4:06 pm
I learnt mine at boarding school, where the rule of the stick, rather than the carrot applied. Bad manners earnt a smack round the back of the head, or (much) worse, an opportunity to stand in the corner during dessert, when your table colleagues could share your portion of chocolate-cake-and-hot-chocolate-sauce between them. Makes me want to cry even now.
… And your grandparents were right, but they weren’t talking about royalty. If you had awful table manners, you and V would probably never have got past a first date (at least that’s what I tell the mini-somnambs
September 5, 2008 at 3:23 pm
Not royalty perhaps but with M and J and D and M at Claridges. What more do you want out of life ??