Do You Teach Your Children To Eat With Their Mouths Closed?

[Trillian]

I used to live with my Aunt and her family for study when I left school and my cousin who is 8 years younger than me sounded like a pig at at trough when he ate and it would make me almost physically ill to listen to it. I used to chip him about it all the time and my Aunt probably thought I was a bit OTT, but it was just foul to listen to it. Very rarely have I ever had to chip my kids about it.

[BabyQ]

I had to try and stop my mouth from when I first sat at the dinner table with DH's parents...very very hard to keep my face from contorting when rice goes flying across the table...and I can't help but squint every time I hear that god awful smacking sound from mil's tongue ..especially when she eats cheese...

I think it could give me premature wrinkles

but the thing is, my dh and his brothers and sisters chew with their mouths closed..

[Cupcake]

Another thing that drives me batty is people dragging cuttlery along their teeth, either forks or spoons when they take a mouthful, its like nails on a chalkboard for me!!

[Bathsheba]

Yes, cutlery clunking is discouraged at home here too... mainly because i don't want to have to pay for a trip to the dentist if they break a tooth! Spoons can be the worst... especially while eating soup i find.

[Lolli]

Elbows on the table And hats at the table. Teenage boys with their caps, don't even get me started

[Nelle]

It's something our kids do, and we do it, especially when we're out.

But it's not a dealbreaker for me (as long as you're not being gross). Over dinner with good mates or family - if someone's making a point and you want to interrupt them (my family's dinners, I'm not sure anyone actually has ever gotten to finish a sentence), you just say it. If you waited to finish your mouthful they might be allowed to go on being wrong for an extra 5 seconds and we can't have that!

So I like that about Nigella, she's human, I don't mind seeing that. Bit of a stretch comparing toileting, and a woman who hosts a cooking program sampling her food.

Hopefully my kids will learn 'table manners'. As well as being respectful in general. But if they're camping or eating pizza while watching a movie with friends and someone talks with their mouth full or farts or burps, I hope they'll let it slide. Or rate it out of 10.

I think that there is a time and place for things, I'm okay with my kids being flexible with their cultural manners, as long as they are consistent with respect and kindness. xo

[Lolli]

It's something our kids do, and we do it, especially when we're out.

But it's not a dealbreaker for me (as long as you're not being gross). Over dinner with good mates or family - if someone's making a point and you want to interrupt them (my family's dinners, I'm not sure anyone actually has ever gotten to finish a sentence), you just say it. If you waited to finish your mouthful they might be allowed to go on being wrong for an extra 5 seconds and we can't have that!

I can hack that. As long as the hand is bought up in front of one's mouth, to avoid see-food and sprayage

[Bathsheba]

Yep, i talk with food in my mouth too at times... but with a hand infront of my mouth... not like i am coughing... fingers curled up... hard to describe... but to stop food flying out. My mother has talked so much while eating food has flown out of her mouth and landed on the table narrowly missing the opposite person's plate and she was too busy talking to notice... or too embarrassed to draw attention to it.

Manners at the table are different to those on camp or at a picnic but i just think it pays to be aware that people generally dont like to think about the state of your food once it has passed the lips! LOL it's just TMI. If Nigella wants to double dip and smack her lips in the process then fine... but i wont suppose for a minute that anyone finds me half as attractive (ie as excusable) as Nigella haha.

[Hollybolly]

OMG definately

Sadly, though, Im starting to think I'm one of few amongst the people I know IRL - everytime Luke has a friend over I notice it more & more... and he does now as well.
Luckily enough he doesn't mention anything in front of his friends, but its noticeable enough to mention it to me once they've left.

The person I found it most horrific in is BIL (17yrs, came to live with us about 18 months ago) - I said to DH last week I'm embarrassed to say it out loud, but its almost like I have lost a little bit of respect for DH's parents & their parenting skills for allowing him to eat the way he does
A little OTT I know, but its the truth - I swear if either of my parents, or either set of grandparents sat at our table while BIL did slurping his food, he would get a slap across the table

I hassle him constantly about it every meal time - I feel terrible & like a broken record, but its important! I ask him what about when he takes a nice girl out for dinner at a restaurant, etc - his GF was here for dinner yesterday when I raised it again, he looked at her when I mentioned the date in the restaurant & she shrugged her shoulders & said she hadn't noticed that he does it

[Ca Plane Pour Moi]

My FiL eats with his mouth open and refuses to close it, even when asked.

I do hate being asked a question as soon as someone sees I have put something in my mouth! So rude, I feel obliged to speak with my hand over my mouth to answer.

As for DS - yes, I do tell him to close his mouth as he eats. We need to neither hear nor see food in the process of being eaten. BUT... when he has a cold, I tell him to take smaller bites and worry less. I had a perpetual runny nose as a child (food intolerance) and eating with my mouth shut was SO hard. I did my best but my dad just ridiculed me if I had to open my mouth to breathe, no matter what I said to explain it. I'm not going to be that draconian!

We also don't put elbows on the table.

[Lulu]

Course I do...I just have to start on being SUBTLE now.

xh nearly died on the train the other day when DD loudly announced how the people sitting opposite were ALL PIGLETS because they were all chewing and talking at the same time...

[AliBaby]

Cant stand it! When DD is old enough i will teach her. I will also teach her how to hold a knife and fork properly and other table manners. I remember this great Disney book my mum and dad would read to us about manners. It was a big hard cover book and we loved it as it had all the different disney characters teaching a different manner.

At school, we eat lunch in class and I pull the kids up on it all the time as I really dont want to see food being munched up right before I eat my lunch. I have actualy seen children say to other children to not talk while they are eating.

[CrazyLady]

xh nearly died on the train the other day when DD loudly announced how the people sitting opposite were ALL PIGLETS because they were all chewing and talking at the same time...

LOL! I'm sure she said it all innocently.

I was thinking about this while giving DD lunch today. She chews with her mouth open yet she is only 10 months old and does have a sniffle at the moment. I am making sure I brush up on table manners before she can use cutlery properly. And no, I don't chew with my mouth open nor with it full of food. It's vulgar!!

I hate eating at MIL's place because she asks me a question as soon as I put something in my mouth and then will try answer it for me while I finish mouthful. She's damn nasty with the open mouth chewing/ talking with mouthful too!

[Bumperstump Cummerbund]

Lulu, oh the innocence of children

I don't remember actually being taught, but I chew with my mouth closed. It doesn't usualyy bother me TOO much if someone has their mouth open - having said that, my best friends sister growing up had the whole mouth open chewing like a cow thing going on...I went absolutely BANANAS one day when she was sitting next to me in the cinema eating popcorn. 'HOW IS IT POSSIBLE TO MAKE SO MUCH NOISE WHEN YOU'RE EATING!!! SHUT YOUR FLAMING MOUTH!!!'

I think I was possibly more embarrassed than she was for having lost it so badly - but she was so loud I couldn't hear the movie! I saw her not long ago, and she eats with her mouth closed now