Etiquette Expert Helps Create Socially Savvy Kids

Fifteen children filed into a dining room at Cinnaminson’s Riverton Country Club Sunday, most looking unsure. Some slumped into their chairs, others fiddled with cutlery. 

But after a two-hour session in how to conduct oneself at a sit-down meal, 15 newly minted experts in dining etiquette emerged.

The children took part in Hip Dining Skillz Luncheon for Boys & Girls, conducted by Hilary Brennan. Her Moorestown company, Socially Savvy, teaches both children and adults the social skills that will help them succeed in life.

“These are developing and emerging minds, and it’s so important to introduce them to these lessons early in life,” Brennan said. “It’s something they will carry with them throughout life, and it will set them apart. 

“When you know how to mingle and conduct yourself, you’re automatically heads and shoulders above someone who doesn’t have these skills.”

The first lesson for the children: sitting. The boys learned how to pull out a chair for their dining companions and gently push them in—even though almost none of the girls’ feet could even reach the floor.

Brennan, along with her assistant Sarah Lapicki, then took the kids through a four-course meal to cover everything from proper napkin laying to making a toast to determining which bread plate belongs to whom.

“Make a lowercase ‘B’ with your left hand—that stands for bread. Your bread plate is on the left,” she advised. “Now, make a ‘D’ with your right hand. That’s the side your drinks are on.”

Brennan kept the lessons kid-friendly, even as she imparted etiquette lessons. After leading the group through introductions, the teacher passed out fishing lures.

“Feel this. Is this what your handshake feels like?” she asked, wiggling the rubbery lures. “You want a strong handshake. You don’t want your hand to feel like a dead fish.”

And in a lesson perhaps every girl in the group will remember, Brennan cautioned against stuffing one’s mouth full of food.

“What if Justin Bieber walked in right now? You couldn’t even tell him your name with a mouthful of bread,” she said to squeals.

The children learned these lessons through an amuse bouche; a “soup” of gummy bears; a main course of chicken fingers, macaroni and cheese and broccoli; and finally an ice cream sundae.

“Can we start eating?” asked Blake Hanrahan, 7, as he hungrily eyed the chicken fingers.

“No!” Koan Serrano, 8, interjected. “You have to wait until everyone is ready.”

That is exactly the kind of lesson Koan’s mom, Ava Zehm, wanted her son to learn.

“I’d like to reinforce good dining behavior with him, but from a different perspective,” said the Moorestown mom. “It’s important for him to get these skills from more than one place.”

Parents and guardians came back at the end of the lesson to observe the closing moments. The kids each introduced themselves to the adults with a firm, non-dead-fish handshake. Eager to show off what they learned, the young diners also let the adults in on the secret of locating the bread plate and drinks, and how to excuse oneself for the bathroom.

“They’re so impressionable at this age, and they’re anxious to learn,” assistant Lapicki said. “Hilary makes this fun for them, and that’s why they’re more likely to remember what they learned today.”

For more information on Social Savvy, visit sociallysavvynj.com.