Mealtime Behaviors
I recently read a very meaningful proverb about politeness and mealtime behaviors. Coming from a household where the discourse around mealtime manners seemed to be about the struggle for control,(I cannot truly know), I smiled when I read the following:
Learn politeness from the impolite. ~Egyptian proverb
I believe teaching children about manners is important. That is a value statement I will own as is parenting a value statement of what we believe or deem important in the growing up process. Raising children is about our values, and we are often influenced by the culture around us. As parents, it takes a lot of courage to raise children and to embrace our values in the process, discarding some with which we were raised and embracing some we hold dear. The important thing to remember is that we cannot recreate our lives in our children. They live in a different time that we did, have differentparents, relatives, friends, weather, food, etc. We can help shape our children’s lives by what we knowand help our children grow up to hopefully make good decisions based on the world in which they haveto live. That is a daunting task since we don’t live their lives, but I see so many wonderful things in thechildren and families at UCCC. This tells me that parents are very involved in the lives of their children,are thoughtful about the way they nurture and parent them, and are doing a wonderful job in helpingmake the world a better place by being parents of this generation. You can teach them about mannersbut they may not decide to use them. Don’t be too disappointed-it’s not a reflection on you. They mayjust not like to chew with their mouths closed!
Post by: Sarah Wilhelms
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