Virtue Begins With a Spoon
Brilliant read. A profound reflection on how a little deliberate living can so powerfully affect our children. Ready to talk about socialization? As you read, consider the antithesis and see if it measures your observations. (Don’t forget to come back and comment!)
“Let me state my thesis outright: The quest of Wisdom commences with learning how to eat. The most basic steps towards virtue are mastered at the family table. Character begins with etiquette. Teach a child how to dine like a human being, and you have gone wonderfully far in his education.”
Read the rest at Virtue Begins With a Spoon
Tags: family/parenting
family/parenting | Word Warrior | 
March 21, 2010 1:15 am
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Absolutely wonderful! With my oldest 4 1/2, I was 2nd quessing the vast number of “we don’t do that at the table” statements I was making. (I never knew I believed in so many table rules!) Now I know to keep the standard high, that there is a foundational principle at work here. Thanks for the post (I also shared it on facebook!)
I read this a few weeks ago via another blog and thought it was spot on. It’s so simple but so profound. It reminded me that what we’re trying to teach and train about around our table are important virtues to instill in our kiddos.
The timing of this post is uncanny…at dinner today I was thinking that perhaps I am a bit too fussy about how my kids eat. Well, now I am reassured that I am serving them well with my very high standards!
Thanks sooo much for sharing this! The dinner table is Crucial for followers of Jesus! This article doesn’t discuss the amount of work it takes to get dinner on the table and a large family assembled around it in a timely manner! It takes a huge commitment to GET to the dinner table but (as discussed in the article) the benefits are worth it!
Beautifully written! And I feel vindicated wanting potential spouses for my grown children to have good manners!
So true! We are setting our kids up for their future…rightly or wrongly. What we teach, or do not, has a lasting impact on their future! Great post!
My mother-in-law couldn’t agree with you more.
She actually bought me an Etiquette book when we were married (ouch). All the little things one doesn’t always think to do: laying bread knife across the bread plate with the handle pointing to the right, using the correct glass for drinks, use of cloth napkins, only butter the piece of bread you are eating, etc. Use of fine china for Sunday meals so that the children will be used to fine dining and thus able to eat in a 5 Star Restaurant correctly. I remember the first time my children saw a place setting with dinner knife, bread knife, dinner fork, salad fork, dessert fork, dinner spoon, teaspoon, and dessert spoon. I told them to watch me closely and only do what I did and prayed like crazy that I didn’t make a mistake.
Thanks for this reminder. I have been lax lately in this and it probably shows more than I know.
I know my mother-in-law isn’t too happy with my lax ways. I don’t own any starter plates, fine china, crystal, or cloth napkins. LOL
Great post! Thanks for the link to the article. It was something I was already planning on blogging about today, so added a link to your post as well. ( http://ordinary-time.blogspot.com/ )
I love this post. I was just talking to a friend recently about how important time together around the dinner table is. She is a newlywed, but you know they don’t even have a table yet. But she grew up where her family would take their food to the living room and eat from tv trays. I guess any more that is the “norm”.
. So even the least educated in the area of etiquette will most likely teach their children some measure of manners. I feel like a failure though sometimes. It is a constant, every day work around here.
A lot of families don’t eat together. It almost forces you to have face to face conversation. It forces you to teach your children manners…most parents don’t have the nerves of steel it would take to endure that slurping and smacking