Stone Soup by Jan Eliot for October 10, 2013

No comment from Holly (maybe she’s stumped on the varieties of spoons).

Family wedding proposal night?

Who’s Eliot think she’s kidding?? No one should ever take minors to upscale restaurants. It’s out of their maturity league.

The kid has a point. Paying 5x what the food is worth, having to wear church clothes for no good reason, and using a ton of extra silverware, all while not being able to have any fun, is NOT “mature.” It’s just stupid.

However, if you don’t teach them now they won’t behave appropriately later. I’ve seen plenty of adults in good to fine restaurants not to mention McD’s) who have no clue about manners.

But really, what IS it with all the forks? (Snicker!)

No fish fork?

I agree that kids should learn how to behave in a nice restaurant. My kids have been going out to restaurants (no fast food) since they were little (and no, there were no tantrums or wandering around because I didn’t tolerate it), and they know how to act. They sit quietly without electronics, order with manners, and they willingly ask for vegetables rather than fries. Yes, they’re still working on cutting normal sized bites and waiting for everyone to be served before you start eating, but that’s normal, impatient kid behavior and it’ll come eventually.

You CAN!Just stick pinky out…

French fries ARE a vegetable! ;o)

She does have a point. WHY NOT just lick off your one fork? It’s all going in the same mouth.

Sister and I never been to a fancy restaurant as our parent never sought first class. So no need to worry about the extra silverware.

This is a second marriage for both of us, and neither of us would have considered dating, not to mention marrying, a person our children didn’t like. We also agreed these were “our” kids, not yours and mine. We’re going to be married long after the kids are grown and flown, so we chose wisely.

I think what Phil ought to have done was bring only Val to this nice place, and tomorrow night taken all of them out for pizza. If you want to teach the girls fine manners for fine dining do it at home. Then they won’t annoy other diners.

wearing “church clothes” and being uncomfortable is just wrong. Well made clothes are going to be comfortable. If you are not comfortable, they need tailoring or replacing. One size does not fit one size – everyone is different.

Now, being too poor to have your good duds tailor made is a problem, maybe you don’t need them anyway. Cheaply made “off the rack suits” are for social climbers that will never make it – they are only fooling themselves.

As a kid, my sisters and I were taken to what we called “fancy restaurants” and we knew how to behave. We also knew what kiddie cocktails were, long before the ages of Alix and Holly! If we hadn’t behaved, I don’t know that I would be here to tell the story now. I’m in my 50s. My children also knew how to behave in fancier restaurants, too.

When our sons were small and we ate at an upscale restaurant, we would sometimes be led to a table in a dark corner.

The purpose of three forks is so that the restaurant can charge three times as much for the same food as IHOP.

Coincidentally, was reading one of the SS books last night and Phil once told Holly (in the “We’ll be Careful” book 9 – I think) that he knows her mom isn’t ready to be married, because she still loves their (deceased) dad too much. Holly tells him “bummer” and Phil responds to her “Totally!” It was a great bonding moment.

I think if any one proposes, it will be Val to Phil. He knows she isn’t ready and won’t push her.

Easy Alex.

The extra silverware in upscale restaurants are just continuity of the wealthy who also use the same at their homes where their tables are set by servants and food cooked by chefs and food served by kitchen staff. These restaurant’s clientele are usually the wealthy and the extra silverware and drinks reflect their snobbery. People like Val and Phil & CO find these illogical and so do I. I also say it is waste of water and labor for extra silverware. One of each would have sufficed. The wealthy don’t care about being wasteful – they prefer to show off.

She’s my kind of girl for sure and the parents who won’t take their kids to a nice restaurant are just too lazy to try and teach their kids anything.

If not now, when? SOMEDAY thes kids will be grown and will not be able to go into better than a fast food restaurant without loooking like pigs and embarassing themselves. We insisted that our daughter learn good manners and we offered her tastes of food that was more than unk food. She can go anywhere and everywhere now with confidence, be proud of herself and she has quite a love of various “better-than_McDonald’s” foods right now that make her a good dinner guest.

You guessed it! I love the part where she’s talking to her dad and some how talks herself into why her mom likes Phil.