Dear Queenie,
My children have terrible table manners. They chew with their mouths open and make the most awful noises doing it. We keep telling them to close their mouths and stop making so much noise but pretty soon they go back to chomping and smacking.
Queenie, what more can we do?—Disgusted parents
Dear Parents,
First, teach your children to take smaller bites of their food. That may help reduce the “chomping and smacking.”
If that does not alleviate the problem, try video-recording them (with sound!) at the table. These days, with all the “smart” electronic devices everyone has, it should be easy enough to do so without being noticed. Then, play the recording back for them so they can see and hear for themselves how they look and sound when they are eating.
And keep on telling them to stop when they are “chomping and smacking.” Eventually they will learn – I hope.
