• My husband had this annoying eating habit of fist-grabbing his silverware whenever he sat down at the table for a  meal. I hated it and it bothered me to no end. Imagine how I felt when we had guests over. He looked so barbaric and uncivilized, as he hunched over his plate and shoveled it in, as if someone was going to steal his food. He blamed it on his childhood and said that he never learned the proper etiquette of table manners. Okay, so get over it already! But he just couldn’t though I pointed it out to him several times. He kept telling me that he wanted to change, but for some reason his behavior persisted.

    I had had enough of telling him without getting results, so the next time we sat for a meal, I decided to sneak a hidden video of him, using my cell phone. Sneaky, I know. But I wanted him to see what bothered me and what everyone else saw when for all these years. I laid my phone up against my water glass and recorded away.

    That evening in our bedroom, I played the video for him and of course he was embarrassed. However, it was just the two of us and I deleted the video, in front of him, after he had seen it. I didn’t have to say anything, and I could tell that it really impacted him. Since then, his table manners have improved tenfold. It’s still not a hundred percent but he catches himself now every time he resorts back to his old ways. It was so successful, that I’ve used this tactic to curb my children’s behavior as well. Generally on things that I’ve tried correcting a hundred times verbally but one quick video can do the trick in a short time.

    We all know that people learn in different ways. Of course, that’s nothing new. But if you really want to shake things up a bit and grab someone’s attention, show them a video of their behavior. Yes, there may be some deep-rooted underlying problem, which will eventually have to be addressed. However, for now it does the job and corrects the unwanted behavior.

    Remember: This is not meant to embarrass or ridicule anyone. So, don’t show them the video in front of anyone else. This will backfire and result in the opossite effect. Show them in private so the meaning and benefit of the intervention isn’t lost!