It's True: I Sent My Son to Etiquette Class

On a recent visit to Grandma and Grandpa’s house, I reached my final straw with bad manners.

I had spent weeks preparing the children for this visit and instructed them to ‘pack their manners’ for the trip. I was raised in a European household with strict manners. We say “please” and “thank you,” pass food without being asked, never speak with food in our mouths, and use utensils properly, to name a few.  I have been successful with teaching “please” and “thank you.”

If my kids don’t use their manners, I ask them to go to their room and find their manners.  It takes them thirty seconds, but it’s enough time to make them think.  If I am on the phone or talking to someone when they wish to speak to me, they flash me the peace sign and I flash it back, letting them know I will hear what they need to say shortly. So imagine my horror when, in front of my parents, my 8 year-old son used his fingers to eat his ranch-soaked salad. My dad’s jaw dropped to fast I thought his dentures would surely fly out of his mouth. I looked at my mom, and her face read with so much emotion she could have been watching a F5 tornado sweep through a city. And I felt like the worst mother in the world. 

I came home more determined than ever to teach my children proper table manners. But I needed a new strategy. 

The constant nagging was not working. So, I signed my son up for Youth Etiquette through Los Alamitos Parks and Recreation. The class was $40 plus a $28 material fee. Cricket Wantland, a graduate of The Protocol School of Washington and a Certified Consultant of Corporate Etiquette, International Protocol and Children's Etiquette, teaches the class. My son was devastated when I told him he was taking Youth Etiquette. 

When I picked him up from the first class, I was prepared for the half-hour of complaining that was sure to follow. Surprisingly, he invited me into the class and properly introduced me to his teacher, a skill he had just learned.  Last week he learned about thank you notes and respecting others. He is enjoying the class and is learning a lot. 

The class has not reached the table manners portion of the program, but I am already a fan. Next week they focus on table manners and have a three-course meal at a local restaurant. At the end of the program, each child gets to keep his or her workbook as a reference guild. 

You can sign up for Youth Etiquette through the Los Alamitos Parks and Recreation Department.  They will be offering this class in the summer catalog, which has not been released yet.  

You can read more about Cricket Wantalnd at her website. When I last checked her site, it was not updated with her current class schedule.