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Manners - are there any you didn't know about until you were older?

999 replies

CheeseToastieLove · 14/05/2021 20:52

Is there anything you didn't realise was bad manners until you were an adult. Things you weren't told when you were young? I didn't realise it was good manners to leave your alcohol at a party when you were leaving until I was in my late 20s. Always took my half full bottle home with me! Cringe. My friend was never taught it was bad manners to start eating before everyone's meals had arrived until she was in her 30s. She was always half finished before everyone had been served.

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IHaveBrilloHair · 15/05/2021 13:12

The guests behaviour may well trump mine, and I'd never say anything, it doesn't mean they aren't rude though.

NewMatress · 15/05/2021 13:15

I've always said pudding because my mum is from the north, nothing to do with being posh. I was ridiculed for it when we moved South. Everyone says dessert here and pudding (aparently) sounds common. To my ears dessert still sounds affected though.

quoi · 15/05/2021 13:17

Taught to me by my DS: If it's a 'sharing' / 'family-size' packet of crisps/snacks etc, it is not acceptable to keep dipping your hand in and out to remove the crisps/snacks. You must pour out a portion into a small bowl/plate.

Manners I wish my NCT group had known: just because you are hosting at your house does not mean that it means you no longer have to be nice to the members of the group that you don't like (mindset of 'it's my house and I don't have to be nice to you if I don't want to now...). If you are a host of any type, you must be nice and welcoming to everyone who comes to your house as a guest, perhaps even more so to those who you don't like. To do otherwise is bitchy bad manners.

Interested in this thread?

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Cheekyweegobshite · 15/05/2021 13:17

My mum is a real Hyacinth Bucket type and has always had a thing about the 'correct' etiquette, particularly with table manners. She would frequently comment on friends/relatives who HKLP (behind their backs). I grew up thinking they were really inferior and still inwardly cringe at people who hold their cutlery 'wrong' and other misdemeanours. I absolutely hate this about myself and I wish I could just stop seeing it Blush

Arbadacarba · 15/05/2021 13:17

But this is entirely theoretical. Firstly, if you’re staying with people as their house guests, they are your friends. They would look at you as if you were mad if you asked them the geography of the house. Secondly, modern, young upper class people genuinely do not speak or behave like this - I have several among my friends and they’re more likely to show you the “powder room”, wink wink, and remind you that you should do lines in there so as not to cause a queue for the lavatory. Thirdly, I don’t believe for one second that anyone on this thread is regularly attending the houses of upper class acquaintances, where any of this detritus about “how do you do” and “house geography” is required.

Oh, yes - I'm not saying it's current or appropriate, just recounting it as an oddity.

I think it belonged to an era where, even as a house guest, you'd behave quite formally - and possibly more to situations where you're not staying overnight, so you might be a guest at a party hosted by someone you would class more as an acquaintance than a friend.

Personally, I'd just say 'may I use your loo, please?' or similar. Or as a host 'the loo is through there.'

MagicSummer · 15/05/2021 13:20

@SmudgeButt

Nearly 30 years in the UK and I'm just about able to remember to say "bless you" when someone sneezes. I was brought up saying "gesundheit" even though no one in my family knew anyone who spoke German.
This one is interesting! I was never brought up to say 'Bless you' when people sneezed, and still find it faintly embarrassing when people say it to me!
Thymeout · 15/05/2021 13:20

French words - dessert, serviette, etc - are pretentious. Hyacinth Bucket wanting to be called Hyacinth Bouquet. Used by social climbers.

There's a poem by John Betjeman which begins: "Phone for the fish knives, Norman...' satirising this usage.

Ime, quite often u-c and l-c often share the same terminolog, e.g. 'lav'.

IgiveupallthenamesIwantedareg0 · 15/05/2021 13:23

re: cheese "noses" they wouldn't smell so good if they didn't have one!

2bazookas · 15/05/2021 13:23

As a child I was unaware that good and bad manners extend to sexual relationships. As soon as I embarked on sex. I found out that there are good and bad manners in that too.

ZoeMaye · 15/05/2021 13:25

I thought I had pretty good manners but I eat in the street so what do I know

Puzzledandpissedoff · 15/05/2021 13:29

There's definitely a difference between manners and etiquette. These also vary according to social situations

Beautifully put

Etiquette can be a bit of a hornet's nest and it's always seemed safer to me to just stick with good manners ... which I was taught basically means not making others uncomfortable

freakyfridays · 15/05/2021 13:37

French words - dessert, serviette, etc - are pretentious. Confused

cul-de-sac, uniform, kilogram, maisonette, Premiere, menu, salad, omelette, ballet...

What's the non-pretentious way to speak about an omelette?!?

Sorka · 15/05/2021 13:37

@Bvop

I knew about not eating in the street from a young age but didn’t know about double dipping until Blush a couple of years ago.

When I was in my early 20s I didn’t know the etiquette for buying rounds in the pub. I still fail to do social kissing properly as I can never predict whether it’ll be one or two.

I also struggle with social kissing. But then, I’d rather not do it at all!
MerylStropp · 15/05/2021 13:40

See also misused reflexive pronouns as a modern variation on this theme, particularly in the workplace - 'Please forward the documents to myself'/'I'll send the documents to yourself' - people think it sounds more educated than using the correct 'me' and 'you'.

I sometimes wonder if it's not so much an attempt to sound more educated, but more polite. As though it's somehow rude to use the words "me" and "you" directly, and the reflexive form softens them somehow. Either way, it's completely wrong and sounds daft! Hmm

JudgeJ · 15/05/2021 13:42

@looptheloopinahulahoop

*Never ask anyone to pass the salt - instead, ask the person next to you if he/she would like the salt. Code understood*

I've never heard that one.

Reminds me of an acquaintance from years ago who had a very broad Geordie accent, he was living for a time in the Officers' Mess. He was very conscious of his accent, if he said 'butter' it came out 'budder' so instead of asking someone to pass the butter he would ask them to 'slide the grease'!
SavingsQuestions · 15/05/2021 13:42

2bazookas Id be really interested if you started a thread on that. I suspect I have no idea... Blush

RoseRedCityHalfAsOldAsTime · 15/05/2021 13:43

Surely the point of not eating until everyone is served comes from the custom of saying Grace before meals?

"For what we are about to receive... and for what Bob is already receiving..."

Smashingorbs · 15/05/2021 13:52

Manners I wish my NCT group had known: just because you are hosting at your house does not mean that it means you no longer have to be nice to the members of the group that you don't like (mindset of 'it's my house and I don't have to be nice to you if I don't want to now...). If you are a host of any type, you must be nice and welcoming to everyone who comes to your house as a guest, perhaps even more so to those who you don't like. To do otherwise is bitchy bad manners.

Totally this and when you are a guest in someone's house, as part of a group activity , it's not polite to decide you are bored, wander off and start looking in your host's cupboards, when your host is occupied serving tea (this actually happened to me).

I also had someone who was a friend of a friend visit me when I had broken my leg badly and was confined to a wheelchair. How lovely I thought! Not so lovely when they said "do you mind if I look around upstairs?" and trotted off without waiting for a reply leaving me stranded in the hall; turns out they were just nosy!

HibouMilou · 15/05/2021 14:06

Jaichangecentfoisdenom

I'm in the double "how do you do" camp. My French father was a fan of "Noblesse Oblige" and Nancy Mitford's description of U and non-U behaviour and was forever telling us not to say "pardon?", but "what?".

Similar to the above poster. My parents/grandparents were also very keen on manners/rules. I was taught to never say “pardon?”; it was considered very rude. Instead you had to say “what?” (Short for “what did you say?”. I passed this on to my children (in a lighthearted way), but they were told off at a state school for refusing to say “pardon” ; the teacher was very angry that they persisted in saying “what?” and had a full explanation why it was more polite!!

I was also forbidden to use the word “toilet “ as it was considered very rude; we had to say loo, lav, lavatory or bathroom.

MarieIVanArkleStinks · 15/05/2021 14:09

@IgiveupallthenamesIwantedareg0

re: cheese "noses" they wouldn't smell so good if they didn't have one!
My cheese has no nose. How does it smell?
JudgeJ · 15/05/2021 14:10

@PreferToSitInTheShade

So what is the correct response to how do you do??

Not an explanation at all, but I'm from the NW of England and
it's just reminded me that "having a bit of a 'how do you do' with someone meant an argument or even a fight. Does this ring a bell with anyone?

Yes, originally NW, 'how do you do' could mean various things depending on the context, 'they were have a bit of a how do you do' could mean a row, a fight or even an affair.
JudgeJ · 15/05/2021 14:11

@RoseRedCityHalfAsOldAsTime

Surely the point of not eating until everyone is served comes from the custom of saying Grace before meals?

"For what we are about to receive... and for what Bob is already receiving..."

Ah yes, school grace, 'For what we are about to receive, that the pigs before refused'!
JudgeJ · 15/05/2021 14:13

@FortVictoria

I quite understand “May I leave the table?” but “May I get down from the table?” sounds to me like you are actually standing on the table. I’ve never heard this before. Not a criticism - a genuine interest as to whether this is a regional phrase, or if it is common across the whole of the UK?
I thought this odd too when I heard my grandchildren say it. They do remember when I went out of the room to take a phone call and forgot them, they were still sitting there half an hour later.
looptheloopinahulahoop · 15/05/2021 14:13

Ah yes, school grace, 'For what we are about to receive, that the pigs before refused

Grin
NeverDropYourMoonCup · 15/05/2021 14:14

I didn't learn any of these as a child from home. Mostly feral would be a fair description of me - especially when it came to food, as I was hungry far too often. There were enough of us to make the appearance of a meal an exercise in getting as much as possible in within as short a time as possible so we could get the hell back out of the way again without losing something of a 'high value' (like a potato) to an equally hungry sibling in the process.

However, I was lucky enough to occasionally see my grandparents and there were a few older ladies or gentlemen who did voluntary work at school/Brownies or taught particular activities. I was always fascinated by how calm, elegant and precise they seemed - and the fact they didn't appear to feel compelled to hit me across the side of the head was a significant bonus - and I must have watched, listened and absorbed a lot of these things without realising it.

Most of the food related ones seem to be about minimising the opportunities for dropping a load of it down your front, such as small pieces of bread, tilting the soup spoon away from you or guiding things onto the back of the tines - it's physics, really, as the act of bringing food towards and up creates forces that could, if strong enough, send it flying towards your front - or reducing potential contamination through double dipping, reaching over somebody else or messing about with condiments repeatedly.

I also prefer anything that means my hands are left clean (I was very aware that they were dirty as a child, but soap cost money, apparently), so eating fruit with a fork feels more pleasant to me than having sticky fingers or juice running down my chin. When I've cooked for others, I've always put condiments and seasonings on the table first because it didn't seem to make any sense to wait until somebody was served food and finally sat down to ask for something; it's more efficient to put down the cutlery/lay the table and place them then, not the other way around.

I definitely absorbed the 'say again?' and 'what?' - it was so much nicer than being too scared to say you didn't understand and getting the usual wallop across the side of the head for being stupid. Didn't dare use them at home, though - I think the wallop was used as a form of punctuation, to be honest.

With visiting/parties and guests, I never experienced those, so relied upon what I saw on TV. It didn't occur to me that I would be bringing something to take back home with me. I did like the idea of writing thank yous, as it meant having a nice pen and stationery to do so - and the number of gifts I get at my workplace now is lovely.

I'm sure my manners and etiquette still leave much to be desired, but I generally use a rule of thumb that if my mother did it, it is most likely unacceptable.

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