I was taught by my grandmother the importance of good table manners. Ok so maybe I didn't see the importance, but the lessons stuck. I can't stand when people chew with their mouths open, and even worse is talking with your mouth full, and burping at the table, or any other bodily functions is a definite no go! Other manners I'm less picky about, but still feel it's important for my children to know, things like asking for items to be passed, instead of reaching across the table, saying please and thank you, and eating with elbows off the table. I became a member of pinterst a while back, and through that stumbled upon a blog that talked about using a piggy to reinforce table manners. The basic gist of it is, who ever uses bad table manners gets the piggy set in front of them, the child with the piggy at the end of the meal is in charge of clearing off the table, washing it down, and rinsing the dishes. Well I don't have a piggy, but we do have a little Yorkie figurine, so it became our table manner mascot. If you have porky yorkie at the end of the meal, you have table clearing duty. If no one gets porky yorkie then everyone is responsible for rinsing their own plates, and whoever has evening dish duty is responsible for wiping down the table. It has worked wonders, within a week we saw huge improvements in table manners. No one likes getting the porky yorkie!
The Porkie Yorkie...dreaded table guest
M looks thrilled about getting it doesn't he?
As I said, no one wants to have the porkie yorkie visit their plate, poor M's brothers watched their manners so they wouldn't get it moved over to them, so he got the job of clearing the table! Of course in our new home, we don't have space for a dining room, or even a kitchen table, but that is no excuse for lack of family meal time, or poor table manners!
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