I was with a friend recently, shopping, when she purchased cloth napkins. I asked her why and she said because she wanted to teach her kids manners and how to eat properly. Hmmmm.......fast forward a few weeks later and you have what happened tonight.
I obviously think today is a major holiday. For dinner tonight I made a pork loin, hash brown casserole, macaroni and cheese, jalapeno corn, rolls and a cake for dessert. It is amazing how just knowing I don't have to work tomorrow makes me feel like cooking! As we were getting ready to eat tonight I decided to pull out the cloth napkins. We have BUNCHES of cloth napkins, no idea how or why, but we do. I typically use them when we are celebrating a holiday at our house. That being said, I KNOW the girls have seen/used cloth napkins before. I know they have used them at my moms house and I am pretty sure they have used them at our house. So, when Autumn walked into the kitchen and asked why we there were rags by her plate at dinner I was shocked! WHAT?!? How does she not know what a cloth napkin is???
Fast forward to meal time.... we sit and say grace and begin our meal. I notice the elbows...4 of them on the table, all belonging to 2 sweet girls. I notice how often they talk with food in their mouth. I notice how they scoop food with their hands, I notice how (after being directed to put their napkins in their lap) rarely they use their napkins. We even pulled out an actual butter knife tonight and the girls asked what it was?
To be honest...it was a bit surreal as we sat there tonight. I also realize we can't change all of the things in one sitting. We picked out biggest battles tonight....napkins, elbows, and talking with food in their mouths. There is sooooo much more to work on. I am admitting that we are LAZY at meal times...we eat in front of the TV more often than we should, we often hurry through our meals to get to our next activity, and we often overlook what it is going on right in front of us. But, that all changes as of tonight. We can't expect our girls to act they way we want them to if we haven't taught them to do it. So, dinner may take a little longer and it will take some work on all of our parts....but we will succeed and we will be the kind of family that knows what to do with cloth napkins. :)
