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At every age manners are an important aspect of our daily lives. Can you imagine a dinner with friends, colleagues or family members where your child is picking up their chicken with both hands and tearing off a bite, chewing and talking with their mouth full, reaching into their glass for an ice cube to chill their soup, and/or wiping their hands clean on their pants? Children simply need to be made aware of acceptable and unacceptable dining habits since these are mostly learned and not ingrained behaviors. We're learning all of the time, each of us are sponge-like to everything we encounter. If you aren't teaching your kids or a loved one about manners and their importance then they'll be left with their basic animal-like instincts; which as they get older may cause them troubles in social and professional situations. Case in point: While dining with a friend and their 9 year old son we both couldn't help but notice how his table manners weren't exactly improving with age. We've all seen it before, someone hunching over their food as if guarding it from a nearby predator. Being regaled with a story as a mouth full of food is openly chomped like you're front row center at a Discovery channel documentary on the first stages of the digestive process. The quite moments riddled with a schlepping noise as food is chewed with an open mouth. At the end, whatever food remnants remained on their fingers are wiped on their shorts, legs, and lastly a dab may make it onto their napkin. Although our dining experience was not quite as dramatic as the examples given above we were a little concerned about the subject and wanted to take some kind of action immediately. Be Aware of Your Thoughts, Words, Actions I feel that self-esteem is critical and since it's developing all the time this can be a delicate matter. I believe that if we condemn another for their behavior we risk instilling in them guilt for simply doing what comes naturally to them. Also if you compare a person to another the danger is that she will feel inferior, less-than and again guilty for not being better. It's the littlest things that seem to have the biggest and most lasting impacts on a person. If we can work on these smaller issues with an awareness of our thoughts, words, and actions then we'll be better equipped to handle larger issues when they come up. Don't Single Out Manners and good manners are more learned than they are natural so I decided the best way to avoid singling him out was to take an approach that included all of us.