Control Your Tongue and Behaviour
A house guest arrived to spend a few days with a family. She was the adult daughter (40 years/single) of one of the parent's in the family. She had never met the other members of the family before.Within 5 minutes of arrival, she had proceeded to tell everyone that she was a very outspoken person, has gotten into trouble for doing so in the past and how she goes about engaging people she meets in conversations, by asking questions.
Nothing novel about that.
Within the next few minutes, she proceeds to insult the 24 years old daughter in front of her parents and other friends. An hour later, when the parents are not in the room, she chastises the 24 year old daughter regarding the daughter's chosen profession and the daughter's choice of boyfriend.
Before and after the meals, she let's everyone else help with meal preparation and clean up, expecting to be waited on by her new "servants". While she had been very talkative before the meal, to the point of sermonizing to everyone, when she sits down to eat, she spends 97% of the time looking down at her plate, eating quietly, sometimes playing with her food, not joining in the conversation at all, and not even looking at other members of the family when they are speaking.
It is not known whether she has ever received etiquette training or not, but my opinion is that there are many things in life one should just inherently KNOW and not have to be taught.
Unless you are in someone's home as a trusted adviser, consultant, stager, redesigner or what have you, keep your opinions to yourself. Offer to help whenever tasks need to be done. Even if your help is not accepted, you must at least offer to help.
When you attend parties, remember that you are there as a guest, but you should also be there to serve the hostess/host and their guests. Part of building a successful business is the ability to and desire to help other people. Never lose sight of that.
posted by Barbara Jennings @ 9:33 AM
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