Hoo-boy, do I feel this one -- particularly with having kids currently aged 12-22. The oldest has outgrown the need of having to hear the rationale for a request (although now that I think of it, as the oldest, he was often the most compliant; the next two really pushed the boundaries). But we *just* had the butter conversation ourselves.
If it makes you feel any better, I can give you yet another rationale for taking the butter and putting it directly on the plate: we don't butter an entire piece of bread/roll; we only butter the piece we're about to pop into our mouths.
Although I'm sure this will be readily ignored, along with reasons 1-3. There's no sense in etiquette overkill.
What's funny is that I actually cut that part of the conversation from the essay (re: explaining the tearing off pieces of bread) because it was getting a little too long there but agree and that point was lost/argued with as well.
Hoo-boy, do I feel this one -- particularly with having kids currently aged 12-22. The oldest has outgrown the need of having to hear the rationale for a request (although now that I think of it, as the oldest, he was often the most compliant; the next two really pushed the boundaries). But we *just* had the butter conversation ourselves.
If it makes you feel any better, I can give you yet another rationale for taking the butter and putting it directly on the plate: we don't butter an entire piece of bread/roll; we only butter the piece we're about to pop into our mouths.
Although I'm sure this will be readily ignored, along with reasons 1-3. There's no sense in etiquette overkill.
What's funny is that I actually cut that part of the conversation from the essay (re: explaining the tearing off pieces of bread) because it was getting a little too long there but agree and that point was lost/argued with as well.
As a full-fledged graduate of “Granny’s School”, I would expect nothing less.