Gentlemen in Training

The Case for Manners for Today’s Young Men – Part 9

The holidays mean food. Lots of it. Hot chocolate. Cookies. Big meals. You name it. We’ve been binging, no doubt, and my wife and I have let our sons indulge right along with us. We’ve also been trying to teach them to be sensible about what they eat. The operative word being trying.

We’re also trying to keep the tradition of the mealtime—and all that goes with it—very much alive. While the food itself is important for health and nourishment, the preparation and serving of it, and the conversation around it, is of equal value to us. We ask each other what we did that day, what we learned, what was our favorite part. We take turns and listen.

We’re trying to teach them how to share something about themselves for each of us to hear. We’re teaching them to say please right after they ask for more water. If Mommy and Daddy are talking and they’re talking over us, we ask them to wait until we are done speaking.

The table is a sacred place in our home. It’s a small island on which we all meet a few times a day. It’s this special place where a certain kind of gentlemanly manners are cultivated early on. It is one thing to break bread. It is another thing entirely to be able to hold a conversation while doing so.

This is all, of course, what we aspire to. We actually spend most of our time at the table begging them to eat, sopping up a spill, or fishing a Hot Wheels out of their milk. Over their shouting and singing, protesting and zoning out if the T.V. is on, there are two men in there somewhere, at the table of life, carrying on the tradition of the family meal. Oh, how lucky we are to have these delicious moments!

Manners Matter: Part 1 of the Gentlemen in Training series

PC or Not PC: Part 2 of the Gentlemen in Training series

Brotherly Love: Part 3 of the Gentlemen in Training series

Gentleman Up: Part 4 of the Gentlemen in Training series

Pick Your Battles:Part 5 of the Gentlemen in Training series

Ladies and Gentlemen: Part 6 of the Gentlemen in Training series

R-E-S-P-E-C-T: Part 7 of the Gentlemen in Training series

I Feel You, Bro: Part 8 of the Gentlemen in Training series

◊♦◊

Photo by Providence Doucet on Unsplash

The post Table Talk appeared first on The Good Men Project.