I watched with great interest last night at dinner while my eight and two year old daughters spilled baby green peas on every tile, strip of grout, essentially the entire surface of the kitchen floor.

I spoke to both girls a couple of times about trying their best not to spill their peas, how to correctly hold a fork, position their mouths over their plates so accidents like these could be avoided in the future.

The spills continued and I noticed Ellie watching her older and younger sister making a huge mess of her favourite side dish.

Ellie’s solution? Resting her tongue on the glass tabletop and using her mouth as a dustpan she swept the peas into her mouth with her fork and unused hand, opened her mouth to show a green, toothy grin and announced, “I guess I’m the only one in this family with any manners.”