Oh, Those Dirty Napkins!!!!

There are so many rules of etiquette to learn. We all know to put your napkin on your lap while you are eating. The most important use of the napkin is to keep the mouth clean of food while enjoying friends and family during a meal. The napkin should be placed on the lap with still one fold or think of it as a 1/2 napkin. We never open a napkin fully while placing it on the lap.

Now the tricky part of the use of napkins. During the meal if you have to get up for any reason you place the napkin on your chair so that you are not putting a soiled napkin on the table while others are eating. People ask me about putting a soiled napkin on a nice fabric chair. If a person is eating carefully and using the napkin occasionally then the napkin won't have a lot of "mess" on the cloth. If by chance the napkin is very soiled then it should be folded in such a way as to not let any food touch a fabric chair.

Meal time should be a happy and enjoyable time with good friends or family. Manners take practice and it can be made fun when the family works together.

Merlin Manners always says, "Its Always Time for Manners".

DO YOU KNOW HOW TO EAT SOUP?

When I teach children how to eat soup the proper way they always remember this little poem:

"Out to Sea and Back to Me"

We start with the proper table setting and with our napkin on our lap. While holding the soup spoon in the proper way, gently tilt the bowl away from yourself and then place the spoon's edge (not the tip) into the soup with a movement of down, out and up to the lips. As we do that movement in class we say together,"Out to Sea and Back to Me". The waves of the sea move outward. Never do you put the tip of the spoon into the mouth, and only sip on the side of the spoon. When finished, the soup spoon can be left in the bowl or placed on the plate under the bowl.

Children learn that concept quickly and I am told, the children always remember the saying, "Out to Sea and Back to Me".

Manners take practice and before you know it......good manners will last a lifetime.

Merlin Manners says: "Its Always Time for Manners"