Dining Etiquette

One thing that I've only seen happen once, but that really annoyed, is when guests are supposed to bring something to eat, but that something they brought will need to be cooked.

I'm not talking about keeping food in the freezer or microwaving it for a short time, in this case the guest brought something that had to be cooked in the oven. It wasn't my house so I didn't say anything, but I'd be extremely upset if that happened to me, I wouldn't want to spend my electricity/gas cooking when I was expecting the guests to bring the food already cooked!
 
Once, my manager at a previous job hosted a team Christmas party at her (wildly luxurious house, with in-house cinema, bowling alley, and walk-in wine cellar), and not only stipulated that each guest bring a bottle of wine, but wrote out a list of the wines she wanted, and if we attended, we had to tell her which wine we were bringing.

Another manager hosted a Christmas party and sent out an exhaustive list of all the do's and don't's of coming to his house...nearly two pages of rules, some weirdly specific, like if women were to wear skirts or dresses, they needed to make sure and wear hose or leggings, no bare legs. We found out later that the rules were all from his wife. :laugh:
 
And now a couple of times I was arguably a bad host.

First, we're not kid people. We don't like kids. Even when they're well-behaved, we just don't care for them. No biggie, some people don't like cats.

As such, we've always had a no-kids rule at our house. We've backslid a few times, but have generally done a good job enforcing it.

When we moved back to Ohio, nearer my family, after nearly 20 years away, we threw a big family cookout, and since it was mainly an outdoor event, we relaxed our no-kids rule.

Mistake.

One kid, about five or six, chose to pee outside in my front yard and then walk around outside butt naked, all in full view of my neighbors, and this just after we'd moved in and trying to make a good impression.

Also, I caught another kid sticking his finger and hands directly into the food and eating from his hands, sampling everything that way, going from the potato salad to the jello to the snack chips that way, getting goop every which way.

That led to my bad-hosting bit:

We hosted our one and only Christmas party, and we firmly told everyone no kids, evening party, drinking and carousing on the schedule, and no one would be available to watch their kids.

One family member, the mom of Baby Godiva The Nude Pee'r, told me she'd be bringing her kid anyway..."We can just put him in the back with his computer game, he'll be fine."

We emphasized again, no kids, that's totally not acceptable.

What'd she do? Show up with her kid, and even joked, "Well, you can't do anything about it now!"

The hell we couldn't. We threw her out! :laugh:

The second bad hosting on my part was at the same party. Someone brought us a case of the cheapest of cheap beer, and I didn't mean it to sound so brutal, but I'd already had some mulled wine and very good beer, so I sweetly explained that "you should just keep that for yourselves, thanks anyway, because really, you don't think we'd drink that, do you?"
 
I was with you on the kids - if you say no kids you mean no kids. But then:

TastyReuben said:
The second bad hosting on my part was at the same party. Someone brought us a case of the cheapest of cheap beer, and I didn't mean it to sound so brutal, but I'd already had some mulled wine and very good beer, so I sweetly explained that "you should just keep that for yourselves, thanks anyway, because really, you don't think we'd drink that, do you?"
Click to expand...

I would have accepted it. Its a gift after all. I'd simply put it out for people to help themselves.
 
Morning Glory said:
I would have accepted it. Its a gift after all. I'd simply put it out for people to help themselves.
Click to expand...
What sort of makes me laugh about it now is that in my drunk head, I sounded like:

"Oh what a thoughtful idea and how kind! Unfortunately, neither my wife nor I are able to drink that, and rest assured, it's us, not you or your lovely gift, and we'd be so happy if you'd enjoy that yourselves. Please!"

But it came out more like:

"Natty Light? Seriously, you should just keep that for yourselves, because no one here's going to drink that, and I'll be tripping over the case until I finally throw it out three months from now. Keep it. I insist. No, I said I INSIST!"

:laugh:
 
So what are member thoughts on people who come over to dinner and at some time during the meal, light up a cigarette, cigar or pipe at the table - or in your house, when nobody in your home is a smoker?
 
flyinglentris said:
So what are member thoughts on people who come over to dinner and at some time during the meal, light up a cigarette, cigar or pipe at the table - or in your house, when nobody in your home is a smoker?
Click to expand...
This has been in our house since the day we married:
60922


It did happen a year or so ago that my SIL showed up half-baked and as soon as she stepped into the house, she tried to fire up her happy pipe, right in my kitchen. She got turned around and redirected outside before the flame ever touched the weed.
 
TastyReuben said:
Once, my manager at a previous job hosted a team Christmas party at her (wildly luxurious house, with in-house cinema, bowling alley, and walk-in wine cellar), and not only stipulated that each guest bring a bottle of wine, but wrote out a list of the wines she wanted, and if we attended, we had to tell her which wine we were bringing.

Another manager hosted a Christmas party and sent out an exhaustive list of all the do's and don't's of coming to his house...nearly two pages of rules, some weirdly specific, like if women were to wear skirts or dresses, they needed to make sure and wear hose or leggings, no bare legs. We found out later that the rules were all from his wife. :laugh:
Click to expand...

I would treat that with the contempt it deserves.!!

Russ
 
Some of you need new friends, none of mine smoke, take food, drop food, are rude. If we had anyone over with habits like that they wouldn't be invited back. But then we vet potential friends? But then again most of our friends are from schools backgrounds, I'm still friends with two people I started kindergarten with. You start kindy about 3 to 4 yo. My best friend and I started 3rd form together as 13 yos,

Russ
 
TastyReuben said:
This has been in our house since the day we married:
View attachment 60922

It did happen a year or so ago that my SIL showed up half-baked and as soon as she stepped into the house, she tried to fire up her happy pipe, right in my kitchen. She got turned around and redirected outside before the flame ever touched the weed.
Click to expand...

We used to do murder nights here every six months or so, dressing up for the theme. I was a murderer in one in a hippy era, my name was something like randy roger, a hippy, so I got a roll up of hooter and lit it up in our kitchen, everyone knew the smell. I put it out straight away, I was just playing the scene. You just reminded me of it. This was about 20 years ago. Good times!!

Russ
 
rascal said:
Some of you need new friends, none of mine smoke, take food, drop food, are rude. If we had anyone over with habits like that they wouldn't be invited back. But then we vet potential friends? But then again most of our friends are from schools backgrounds, I'm still friends with two people I started kindergarten with. You start kindy about 3 to 4 yo. My best friend and I started 3rd form together as 13 yos,

Russ
Click to expand...

That's a very good reaction rascal . I can tell you that I dropped people like that from my friends and acquaintances a long time ago. But I can say that I have run into people like that.

If you have relatives, inlaws and such like that - well, I hope you know how to reconcile those issues.
 
flyinglentris said:
That's a very good reaction rascal . I can tell you that I dropped people like that from my friends and acquaintances a long time ago. But I can say that I have run into people like that.

If you have relatives, inlaws and such like that - well, I hope you know how to reconcile those issues.
Click to expand...

My wife is one of two girls in 9 kids. The two ladies are top ladies the boys are all spineless wimps.
We have nothing to do with the brothers, my wife was executor of her mums will with her sister. The brothers kept ringing up asking when they were getting paid out. I mean like every night. I soon put a stop to that. Their wives were behind it all.

Russ
 
Great thread! My lamenting may be selective but here it goes:
  1. I have hosted many soiree's for family. The very, very rare times they have invited us over for a 'celebration' of sorts e.g. house warming, BBQ's, casual get togethers, etc. they have always asked for me to make a dish, often specifying what they wanted. Uuuuummm, the most expensive and time consuming on the list? Yes, I did it but no more.
  2. My In-laws. Heaven forbid if you drink a drop or eat a bite of food at their home. They will invite family over but make sure to charge each of us XXX amount of dollars. WTH? My DH would 'contribute' without telling me. My MIL and SIL's would be on guard with the food and insist on serving us the tiniest sliver/portion of everything. As time went on, I found out about the per person charge. NEVER AGAIN.
  3. My BBQ's. I recently asked my sister to bring her fabulous potato salad twice. What did she do? Brought over a 1/2 sack of potatoes and proceeded to prepare it in my house. RUDE~ Never again.
  4. What makes you think if you host a party where you expect to receive gifts authorizes you to make sure I bring food and drink?
  5. The rude guests who will bring dessert and then hide it in my kitchen whilst I am not looking; then take it home with them without me seeing? LMAO.
  6. The greedy family and friends who look around and try and take everything you have leftover home. My MIL would start early and hide it in her daughter's car.
  7. Eating with a plate underneath your chin? I do that when alone or with my immediate family. I would never eat that way in someone else's home unless not seated at a table, LOL.
Loving this thread. Have so much more to share.
 
Yes, we do have the relatives who charge, to the penny, for food ordered in. We once visited, they ordered pizza, which we didn't really want, then figured up how much each slice cost, and charged us accordingly, like down to the penny, for what we ate.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom