Miss Manners: My Daughters Boyfriend Never Thanks Me For Cooking

suspension

Dear Ms. Manner , my daughter is 28 years old and lives in the same city as my father and I. She comes for lunch once a week and usually asks to bring her boyfriend Doug, 29, with her. No matter what dish you served him, Doug never said anything nice about it or thanked him for it. Other than that, he looked like a handsome young man.

I tried to raise my daughter right and I think she knows better. She tried to hint at him, but he either didn't understand or didn't tell Doug about it.

Should I tell him how I feel about it? But then Doug might want to compliment my kitchen (or at least thank me for the food), which is wrong and disingenuous. Another possibility is that my daughter feels hurt by Doug. I won't even mention Doug's table manners because I'm sure it would upset him.

How do you recommend dealing with it?

Let's all get rid of the notion that morality has anything to do with obeying natural inclinations. This young man showed you what he has, but you gave them nothing.

Miss Manners therefore believes that the fear that your daughter's story may appear dishonorable is unfounded.

Fortunately, the situation is easy to manipulate. Woman. Manners suggests asking your daughter if Doug has any food preferences because he doesn't seem to like what you're cooking and you want to make him happy. This, in turn, will encourage your daughter to say something nice at the next meal, at least for her own sake.

If he does, you have to accept it, no matter how wrong and insincere it may seem. If he stayed close, even better.

Dear Ms. Manner , A few days ago, on Thanksgiving Day, we went shopping in a very busy grocery store. A woman in front of us stopped an almost empty shopping cart at the checkout and ran back and forth adding items. We finished all our shopping and waited for full carts.

Eventually he disappeared for a while and the line moved, so we pushed his cart aside and headed to the checkout. He came back and started yelling at us, moving his car, was loud and insulted us for trying to steal his seat. He burst in front of us and examined.

Is it possible to "save" a spot in the checkout queue and then make a purchase? We found it very convenient.

Saving space in the checkout queue should be limited to finding the next item quickly without running out of the return queue. Ms. Manners assures you that you and your friends are not wrong. There was a woman screaming.

MS. New ethics columns are published Monday through Saturday at washingtonpost.com/advice . You can ask questions to Miss Manners on her website: missmanners.com . You can also follow him @RealMissManners.