DEAR MISS MANNERS: For the last 30 years, my wife and I have enjoyed hosting dinner parties at our house. Over the last few years, several guests have started showing up with their own bottled water or with a filled exercise water bottle, which they drink from throughout the night.
We’ve never said anything about it and we’re not offended, although we do think it’s a little weird. Do you think bringing your own water is rude?
By the way, we have plenty of bottled and filtered water. It’s even chilled.
GENTLE READER: Perhaps you can put a sign to that effect on your door: “Chilled water available here.” But then, your guests might use your home as a filling station.
Miss Manners finds it equally weird and somewhat insulting to take one’s own water to private homes. It removes the opportunity for the host to graciously offer a beverage — or assumes that anything offered will be unsatisfactory. She therefore requests that unless there is a medical issue, water bottle usage be restricted to gyms and cars only. And so it has been decreed.
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(Please send your questions to Miss Manners at her website, www.missmanners.com; to her email, dearmissmanners@gmail.com; or through postal mail to Miss Manners, Andrews McMeel Syndication, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106.)
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