Eat at the Table...

...to avoid getting the whole house grubby

Department of making cleaning easier by stopping dirt before it happens:

Yesterday I said dirt comes in from outside and you need good mats.

There’s another way the house gets soiled: from food!

If people are eating all over, willy-nilly, then crumbs and grease and spills are also getting all over.

Furniture gets grubby. Things begin to smell; only, if you live there, and this is truly scary, you don’t really notice it. But others do, yikes!

Children make this situation much, much worse. Bottles or sippy cups stealthily dripping minute amounts of milk into upholstery, greasy hands wiping off on woodwork and pillows, pretzel paste getting ground into rugs… the job of cleaning is made impossible when we allow food just anywhere.

By all means have your fun movie night or game day with snacks. A meal in bed for a sick one? Of course. Be ready to wipe things down, though…

For everyday life, eat at the table only.

Make children sit up at the table, napkins at the ready, or if quite juvenile, in that marvelous invention we call a highchair; and afterwards, insist on washing hands and mouth before they can roam about.

The habit of allowing kids to take food all over is madness!

For more details, go here.

Evening Meal by Carl Larsson

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