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In my family, we don't have very many rules regarding dinnertime. Being asian, I get the occasional slap on the wrist for holding my chopsticks wrong and other superstitions regarding that, but my parents don't say much else. They've never told me to take my elbows off the table or that I'm slurping my soup too loud. I don't get in trouble for chewing with my mouth open (I know, SO attractive) or not saying "Please" and "Thank you" when asking someone to pass the soy sauce* over. The only thing that's greatly frowned upon is turning on the TV while we eat, whether it's breakfast, lunch or dinner. I've always known the obvious reason why - my dad doesn't want us to get distracted from communicating with each other properly. It would be another source of noise that we would have to talk over. In my grandpa's house, the TV is on from the moment somebody wakes up till the last person falls asleep, regardless of whether somebody is actually watching it. In fact, the TV is neglected more than it's watched. I understand exactly why my dad doesn't allow the TV during dinnertime - he doesn't want it to be the only one talking, even if it means awkward silence. I guess talking with my mouth full might be more polite than rude.

*Speaking of soy sauce, I was eating dinner with my grandpa and uncle when I noticed that something was moving in the soy sauce. I pointed it out to my grandpa, who decided to use MY chopsticks to take out the moving object and put it on my plate. It was a white, worm-like bug. It crawled out of my plate. This isn't an abnormal occurance. Tiff, you would die here.