The Old-School Dining Rules Your Grandparents Actually Lived By - Tasting Table

"Are your grandparents always trying to get you to sit up straight? Take your elbows off the table? Eat soup correctly? We have good news: They're not just doing it to irritate you (although perhaps maybe sometimes it might feel like it). They just grew up in a different era, when dining rules and table manners were taken a lot more seriously than they are today."

"In fact, many young women were even sent to finishing school, also known as charm school, where they learned appropriate etiquette, including how to sit at the table and eat their food "correctly." But this wasn't a universal experience. As you'll see below, most people were simply taught old-school dining rules by their own parents and grandparents, having the correct posture,"

"Many of the Generation X generation (born between 1965 and 1980) remember being raised on Depression-era cooking, with grandparents who grew up during a time when food was scarce, and so wasting what little you had was out of the question. Plenty remember sitting at the table until late into the night, simply because they hadn't managed to finish every last morsel on their plate yet. Many still refer to being a member of the "clean plate club" as a kid."

Grandparents grew up in an era when dining rules and table manners were enforced more strictly than today. Many young women attended finishing school to learn etiquette such as proper posture and correct ways to eat. Most people learned old-school dining rules at home from parents and grandparents rather than formal instruction. Past generations emphasized never leaving food on the plate, influenced by Depression-era scarcity and wartime campaigns that discouraged waste. The expectation to finish every morsel and belong to the "clean plate club" shaped many childhood mealtime experiences.

Read at Tasting Table