Mind Your Manners

Summary
The Tibble twins want to take their grandmother out to dinner to celebrate Grandparents day, but she would rather stay home. Could their table manners have something to do with her turning down their invitation? Can the Tibbles learn to behave at the dinner table?

Plot
The opening begins as Grandma Thora calls the Tibbles' grandmother to come to the movies with her, but seeing how troublesome Tommy and Timmy are, she isn't too sure about it until she is given advice to visit a "babysitter" website. But this proves to be difficult as she cannot find just the right babysitter and she calls Thora back to inform her that she'll be staying home that evening.

Mind Your Manners

D.W. and Emily are setting up their farm when suddenly Emily pulls out a weird doll. She explains what sort of creature it is and explains that she got it from a special circus they visited. Then D.W. begins to talk about the card she made for Grandma Thora. Timmy and Tommy then appear and begin to roll around and rub in the sand and dirt. As a result, they ruin the girls' structure. It's then that D.W. and Emily ask them what they got for their grandmother, but the twins completely forgot. Emily suggests that instead of doing what they want, the twins should do something she would like.

As they roughhouse, they suddenly stop upon seeing a commercial for a fancy Italian restaurant and believe this is the right place to take their Grandmother. Choosing to surprise her, they wake her loudly, startling the older woman as they try to give her breakfast in bed - only to end up spilling a lot of milk.

After the twins inform her of their plans, she is quick to point out that their previous time out didn't really end well and thinks this is a bad idea: they are too badly behaved to eat out.

In class, Tommy and Timmy explain what happened to D.W. and they have no clue why she turned it down, until D.W. points out that the both of them are slobs. She then explains how table-manners work and they ask her to teach them how manners work. However, D.W. refuses to do so, and later on the twins try to determine who could teach them proper etiquette and manners. They practice pulling out chairs, pouring juice, serving food, and then eventually getting into a small, messy food fight.

On the walk home with Molly and James, the twins continue to rough house when Molly assures him that she'll watch over them. While at the Sugar Bowl, the Tibbles begin to yell, and an angered Molly tells them they are leaving now. She then lectures the two of them, telling them that they have to be polite and think of what others would like. She then demonstrates by opening the door for a woman and tries to give the Tibbles some advice on how to properly behave.

At the library, both Timmy and Tommy begin to fight over a book loudly until they remember Molly's rules, and they proceed to quietly fight over the book. Then later, Tommy helps Grandma by opening the door. Then upon remembering to be polite, they try to eat with their manners in place. Some time later, the Tibbles ask their Grandma if they could get a drink and they suggest the restaurant nearby. They manage to convince her, although she is still very hesitant.

Once inside, she mentions how quiet they are being and asks them if everything is okay. Timmy accidentally knocks over his drink. Tommy is about to retaliate by pouring his drink over his brother's head, but suddenly remembers his manners and tries to help him clean up instead.

Grandma then allows the twins to take her out to dinner and they go to a medieval-themed restaurant. However, upon noticing the lack of forks and knives, Timmy and Tommy asks their grandma if it's really okay to eat without the utensils. She explains that she feels this would allow them to relax a little bit, and the boys chow down as the episode finishes.

Characters

 * Timmy and Tommy Tibble
 * Mrs. Tibble
 * D.W. Read
 * Emily
 * Molly MacDonald
 * James MacDonald
 * Paige Turner (cameo)
 * Matthew (cameo)
 * Matthew's mother (Cameo)

Trivia

 * Arthur does not appear in this episode, but D.W. does.

Cultural References

 * A parody of If You're Happy and You Know It was sung by one of the babysitters.

Home Video
DVD:
 * Arthur: Season 11
 * Germophobia (DVD)