The tourist accused my daughter of having struck her

Dear Miss Manners: During a cruise in Alaska, my husband, my 24 -year -old daughter and I decided to make follies for a helicopter ride to see a glacier.

We went up to the glacier with a couple in the 1970s and their young grandchildren.

We have been given very strict safety instructions on how to go out towards the helicopter, how to enter and which is seated where to balance the load.

The grandmother decided to stop and remove her phone to take a photo just before entering the helicopter. The instructor tried to get her on board, but it was very strong, so my daughter, who was the next one to enter, hit her shoulder to alert her.

She turned upside down and said my daughter struck her on purpose. We all apologized abundantly, but she did not let go, and in fact, he said to all the other people that my daughter pushed her.

In fact, my daughter did nothing like it.

How to manage this situation? We had to spend time on a glacier with a group of cold people who heard that my daughter was a snow monster.

Soft reader: It was a simple politeness on your part of supposing that it was an honest misunderstanding and acting on this hypothesis by apologizing.

But if you think there were only two possible responses to the greater the grandmother’s coarseness-an impotence of the coarse counter-out or a sweet-you would be wrong.

The grandmother’s behavior was scandalous: she publicly – and insignificant – accused your daughter of having approached her.

The polished answer to such behavior is the cold shoulder – precisely what the grandmother has done to you, the less the pointing finger.

The more rational and polite you are (although clearly offended by the suggestion of reprehensible acts), the more your sworn enemy was whipped in a frenzy of tips and accusations, the more everyone on the tour will conclude that yours is more credible – and also that your business is more pleasant.

Dear Miss Manners: I met an unexpected soup situation.

My sister stole the cross-country to visit my mother and me, and my mother spent hours having a delicious soup so that my sister has a hot meal ready upon arrival. My mom is an excellent cook.

Unfortunately, as we all sat down to eat, we noticed that a small brush, used to clean the parts of the bottle, had fallen into the soup and may have been cooked with it for a while.

My sister and I were quite put off, but we could say that my mother would have a broken heart if we refused to eat it.

What should we have done?

Mild player: Immediate family rules concerning the health conditions around food can be slightly less strict by mutual consent, but consent is always essential.

As you were two, you and your sister could have used all the distraction and deception techniques that you may have worked when you were young. Like one of you by declaring how great the soup was while the other whipped it in the kitchen before your mother could check the bowls.

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