Authors Note - This little example of 'how not to bring up your daughter' comes courtesy of a prompt from brit10brat! Hope you like it!

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Manners

The hardest job kids face today is learning good manners without seeing any ~ Fred Astaire

Olivia was quiet. Which, Serena knew, was never a good thing. It generally meant that her daughter was brooding, or working up the courage to ask a pertinent but awkward question, or a combination of the two.

She glanced at her from the drivers seat of the car, watching as she stared out at the New York streets. She was tempted to ask what the issue was rather than just sit there grimly trying to second guess it, but decided better of it. Perhaps if she ignored the difficult silence that was filling the car, they'd arrive home and she'd make the child go to bed before she got round to saying whatever it was she was building up to.

They'd travelled only a minute or so more however when she finally found the courage to say what was on her mind.

"Anna's family sit at a table to eat."

Dear God. She was a funny little thing sometimes. Serena glanced looked over at her again, "And?"

"And we don't."

"Olivia." She said sharply, too tired after a long day at work, which had been combined with a particularly grotty hangover, to cope with her seven year old being ridiculous, "What on earth are you talking about?"

"We don't sit at a table to eat. I sit on the floor in the den."

Well, Serena supposed she had her there. Olivia generally spent her evenings with babysitters, because she had to socialise a lot for work. There was always a college fundraiser or a function to attend, or even just late lectures. She couldn't always be at her daughters beckoned call, and quite frankly, if the babysitters chose to let her sit in front of the television to eat, it was hardly her problem.

Besides which, it wasn't like she'd never seen a dining table. Olivia had been dining at some of Manhattan's finest restaurants virtually since she'd first been able to manage solids. There were maitre d's in the city who greeted her by name so really, the concept of sitting at a table to eat shouldn't have shocked her.

Serena said as much, but Olivia just stared back at her, looking confused, "But that's just in restaurants mom. I didn't know people ate at tables at other times."

Serena loved her daughter dearly but she was grating on her at that moment. She was clearly in attention seeking mode. Still, that was hardly a surprise. Serena had had her doubts about her going to play at her new little friend's house in the first place. They lived their life quite happily in their own way and the last thing her daughter needed to see was a "normal" family, a "nuclear" family in action. She'd suspected that seeing a conventional mommy, daddy, 2.4 children set up would mess with her head and it looked like she'd been right.

She turned to her, keeping half an eye on the traffic so as to avoid causing a road traffic accident whilst dealing with her erstwhile daughter, "Olivia, where do you eat lunch at school? On the floor?"

Her daughter shrugged, "No. But that's school. That's not home. I thought you could eat how you liked at home."

Serena rolled her eyes. It was like talking to a brick wall. "People sit at tables Olivia. I don't think we need to make a song and dance out of it."

Olivia stared down at her hands, silent once more. Serena hoped that that would be the end of it because really, it was just too much, but then, as they pulled up outside their building, she started all over again.

"Anna's father said 'Grace'. Like at school. I didn't know that people did that at home. I started eating before he'd done it. Anna's brother laughed at me and said I had bad manners."

"Well I think that laughing at someone is bad manners." Serena said, desperate to draw a line under the conversation because she had a pile of work to do and therefore the last thing she needed to be doing was engaging with a seven year old on the art of good table manners. She got out of the car, handing her keys to the valet and then waited for her daughter to join her on the sidewalk.

"I picked my plate up to drink my gravy."

God. She was STILL on it.

"Then he laughed at me again."

Serena sighed, grabbing Olivia by the arm and dragging her up to the apartment, and into the den. She glared at her, which was unnecessary in hindsight because her daughter just sat on the couch, completely silent, obviously not going anywhere. She left her there and went into her study, locating two books on her bookshelf and returning to the den with them.

She tossed the first, a guide to etiquette that her mother had given her years back to prepare her for being "a lady", down on the couch next to her daughter.

"Find the section on good table manners in there and read it. Any words you don't understand look them up in here." she handed her a dictionary, "Any words you still don't understand, ask your teacher tomorrow." she turned on heel only stopping momentarily at the door to give her daughter her parting shot, "I don't want to be disturbed. I've got work to do…"

There. Problem solved.