Little Mr. Manners

When I was growing up there was a class that girls could attend to learn "proper manners." When girls turned about 10 to 12 they could enroll for these classes at the local JCPennys. I don't know if these are still offered anymore but I think the age of 10 might be a little late to learn manners!

It has been a very interesting road teaching my little boys manners. We started off with the "thank yous", "please", and moved from there to the "yes ma'am and no sirs." We are still working on the ma'am and sirs but they are coming along. In the last couple of months or so I have noticed that we needed to work on table manners. We started off with what we thought to be the obvious - asking to be excused from the table when finished. Sometimes they forget and have to return to the table to ask. But tonight when I saw my older son cram a half piece of garlic toast into his mouth I realized that we had some serious work to do with table manners. Now this seems like it would be rather easy, but for some reason my boys seem to think everything is a contest and/or funny! How funny is it that I can cram this much food in my mouth? I can beat you eating my peas! So tonight we explained to Cole that you need to take smaller bites and chew with your mouth closed, etc, etc, etc... Well it became a contest between the two boys since Franklin didn't want to be left out on the manners. In between the serious discussion of what is correct and not correct we have Franklin demonstrating to us the not correct with "isn't this funny, Dad?" Then it became a contest between the two of "he's not chewing with his mouth closed" or "I did it right but he still isn't." If nothing else, we do not have boring meals at our house!! There are other issues with manners that has shown me there is a HUGE difference between raising a girl and raising two boys....but that is another post!

So for now the doctor is out....checking to see if they have those "Mr. Manner Classes" for young boys because their mom is going nuts trying to do it on her own!