For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for March 09, 2025

My Mom wasn’t this extreme, she just taught good table manners

Hypocrite!

Pot & kettle?

Possibly the longest-running joke in this comic strip is that idea that the Pattersons are terrible slobs when it comes to eating. It appeared in the first year of the comic strip and ran all the way to the last year of the comic strip. One of the strip’s best jokes.

Like mother, like daughter.

The whole family eats like pigs at a trough. The kids should have learned table manners long before now—I remember a strip from about 5 years ago where Mrs Enjo got after Michael for his lack of manners.

I was taught to butter only the bite-sized piece I was going to eat immediately, not the entire thing, but “Don’t butter your bread in the air” is a new one for me. BTW, where is Elizabeth supposed to set that slice of bread for buttering? On the table? There isn’t room anywhere else for a whole slice of bread.

Whatta hypocrite! I bet Liz wishes her parents NEVER returned from Mexico!

My parents were constant with keep your elbows off the table. Never understood why that was so important.

“Hey Mom! Do you like see-food?”

(opens mouth full up already been chewed food)

“See? Food!”

Elbows off the pizza please.

From Lynn’s Comments: My brother and I had eating lessons. Our mom sat us at the table with a yardstick down the backs of our shirts to keep us sitting up straight. Then, with a children’s book under each arm, we ate using the fork and knife a certain way, taking small bites and chewing well. She monitored the entire meal. When it was over, we’d grumble about how stupid it all was. Later, as we went on dates and had meals with employers, we realized how valuable that instruction was!

Do as I say, not as I do.

Work rules are 20 minute lunches. That gives you 10 minutes transit time and 10 minutes stuffing your meal time.

I don’t care about how somebody butters their bread, whether it’s “in the air“, on a plate, whether or not they only butter the bite size chunks, etc. Just two things: Don’t talk with your mouth full, and don’t scrape your utensils on your teeth.

Wow, hypocrite!

What a hypocrite

With 5 boys my mother was happy when there was no blood shed.

Maybe because the way she eats is none of your business along with the state of her room and her personal life?

Similar to the anti-drug commercial where the dad confronts the son asking where he learned to do drugs. Son replies he learned watching his dad.

The Patterson Method of Raising Children:

Until the child is a teenager, raising said child should be the dog’s responsibility. Beyond the age of 18, training children then becomes the responsibility of the parents and should be only conducted in the form of nagging.

Kind of ironic that Elizabeth’s mom took a day off in Mexico vacation when she is being conned by a shyster selling time shares, to catch a dead eye plane flight back to Canada to teach her daughter Pygmalion / My Fair Lady proper etiquette on dining!

Makes you wonder if Elly will be back in Mexico tomorrow being innocently sold on the time shares?

So… I see a lot of people here saying there’s some old etiquette rule to only butter a little piece of bread at a time. I don’t get it. What’s the point?

I had table manners until I started in Army basic training mess halls. Then it was everyone for themselves. The Good Old Days.

I went to Europe several decades ago, switching utensils to cut with your dominate hand (right for me) instantly ID’d you as an American. They don’t switch hands there. Oh, BTW, the fork is used upside down mostly.

Growing up, it was mostly elbows off teh table and holding your fork correctly when cutting your food when needed.

I had a boss that would take his daughter and a friend out to eat and sit them at their own table while he and his wife sat nearby. Great training.

Yeah, Pay Attention!!! You’ll have kids someday to explain this to!!!

You can eat like you want when no one’s watching …

We learned by example and it was simply expected to be followed. Nobody defied it since EVERYbody, for the most part, behaved the same way.

Do as I say, not as I do.

There should be some etiquette at the table, yes. Chewing with your mouth closed, and wiping your mouth with your sleeve should be etiquette no-no’s known by those in their teens. I’m not sure if the fact that it does bother me seeing someone holding their fork as if they’re ready to drive a stake into a vampire’s chest when cutting something on their plate puts me in the realm of table etiquette snobbery, though.

Being American, I always had the impression that Canadians had the best table manners and vocabulary. I can see the hard work Elly is teaching Liz on the manners and the joke, too.

Do as I say, not as I do …. my mother’s mantra

Miss Manners — please stay away.

Yep, even in Canada, it is a do as I say, not as I do world. The Canadians just happen to be more polite about it.

The table manners we were taught seem to be obsolete. Even the upper class Brits we see on TV don’t use them. As for proper grammar… it seems to be a lost art.

There was an episode of The Sopranos where Tony and some of his crew went to Italy. The {native} Italian mobsters hosted a dinner for them and Paulie Walnuts sends his plate away, shocking one of the Italians. In their native tongue, the shocked man asked his confederate what happened:

Italian #1: He does not like it, so he is giving it back and letting the whole table know?

Italian #2: And you called the Germans ill-mannered pieces of trash.

The lesson? Do what I say, not what I do

Ellie is kind of a hypocrite and a bit absent-minded.

A manners lesson for Elly:. Index finger in air to make a point is considered worst body language

These are the sorts of strips I hate—that think hypocrisy is funny, sigh

Eat, Glut, Glunk. Eat, Glut, Glunk. That’s the sound I make when eating. Eat, Glut, Glunk.

Cru-Elly has always been a hypocritical shrew!

Girls always seems to be boxed into a corner to act more ‘lady like’.

There’s not nearly the same pressure for boys to act like gentlemen.

Do as I say, not as I do

In general, “good manners” are simply concern for others.

Meanwhile they’re losing their shorts in Mexico

I’m guessing the time share presentation went so badly that they either left early or got kicked out of the resort?

At the Fraternity if we had bad table manners we were called out in a Sunday evening line up. A plate full of food was place on the ground and we had to eat from it in a push up position while the brothers told us that was what we looked like at dinner.

Woman I dated a few times enjoyed watching people with bad table manners.