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" The French woman rules the French life, and she rules it with a triple crown, as a businesswoman, as a mother and above all, as an artist." - Edith Wharton

Warm greetings! How are you? I hope you have been very well.

We did it! We have passed the mid year mark. The year has been passing very fast for me with unexpected travel, family matters and Colin's work to attend to...plus spending time with my five month old nephew, Tyler!

Hanging out with him made me think about elegant motherhood. I wondered how would an elegant woman raise her child?

The Art of Elegant Motherhood

While I'm not a mother yet but for the most part, it is hard to separate women and children. If you don't have children, you'll have a friend or auntie who does. You might be an older sister who acts like a surrogate mother. You'll probably have nieces and nephews.

I recently enjoyed reading this book: Unequal Childhoods: Class, Race, and Family Life. It was part of my research to find out why elegant mothers not necessarily produce elegant children. The book was not what I expected as it wasn't so much of a definite point of view on how to raise fine children...instead, it was more like a study where the researcher states her observations.

It was interesting, nevertheless and I did pick a pointer or two for food for thought. While this book will not make it to my list of must-reads, it is just an interesting study for personal reference. You can read my blogpost about Childhoods and Social Class here.

Take time to think

One of my elegant girlfriends recently started a jogging habit. She would wake up at 7am in the morning for a quick 10-15 minute jog three times a week. Apart from its health benefits, that small window of time helps her think.

It might sound unnecessary because you think that you've been thinking all day long. About your work, the house, the bills, the errands, the children etc etc. However, I believe she is right. I experience the same thing when I get into my yoga routine. Since I know I will be occupied with the Wii Fit yoga for 20 minutes, I just let my mind be blank and 'wander'. It is in those moments that I feel a 'clearing of my mind' which makes it more conducive for creative ideas to flow. As a result, I also feel calmer and mentally poised (which I believe translates to physical poise.)

Of course, during exercise is not the only time to think, you can make a conscious effort to think and reflect during a spare minute - in the shower, brushing your teeth, as you fall asleep. For instance, if you do not yet have children, you can take the time out to think about what kind of mother you'll want to be. If you do, you can prepare for the next 'direction' you'll like to lead your children to. It is an aspirational exercise and progress is built on aspirations.

Passing Down of Exquisite Manners

In the past, it was the mother who ensured that their children learned their manners. Schools started teaching them. Over the past 20 years, the importance of teaching manners became fuzzy. Some blamed cultural changes. For others, the blame is on the time-poor society. Schools phased out etiquette training because of high competition of more 'useful' skills (understandably).

I suppose it doesn't matter so much where you or your child learned their manners. The important thing is to value them in your home. When you value something, you will pick up the right etiquette and manners in some way or another, either through a website like elegantwoman.org or a book or by observation.

Here are some manners lesson plans for those interested.

What is the difference between books "Secrets of Elegance" and "Becoming a Woman of the Finest Class"?

This question comes up often, so I thought I'll write a short answer for this.

I wrote Secrets of Elegance as primer for the book, Becoming a Woman of the Finest Class. It doesn't matter if you read each book in different orders because the books are different.

Secrets of elegance is a detailed and expanded version of this page 'How to get an elegant self confidence'

and Becoming a Woman of the Finest Class is a detailed and expanded version of this page "What it means to be 'classy'"

The second book is 2-3 times bigger than the first one too, due to the subject matter.

Secrets of Elegance is a great starter to become a certain elegant way. The second book is for those who want to achieve much more and especially those who want to be more relatable with the privileged classes because of the position you are currently in - enrolled in a prestigious school or handling wealthy clients or dating a blue-blood etc.

I've included the topics covered for my second book below.

Topics Covered in Becoming a Woman of the Finest Class Book

Section 1 - Definition of Class and History

Origins of Social Class
Beauty of Proper Bearing
Becoming Equals
Attributes of Class and its measure
Needs before Refinement

Section 2 - Pedigree Values

Values of the Finest Class
Where do these values come from?
How does a fine woman value people?
The Class act

Section 3 - Class Distinctions

What distinguishes the people of class (A big section)
Expanding Your References
Deportment

Section 4 - Education Section

More on the How-Tos, guide to taking action.

$22.50 USD

Using Facebook Comments on Elegant Woman

I mentioned this in the past issue of Elegant letters, but did you notice the Facebook comments feature at the bottom of every page of elegantwoman.org?

I guess it will be another way for us to 'meet and talk' to each other, which is a nice touch. :)

Other Resources At ElegantWoman.org

Secrets of Elegance Book

Classy First Steps Ecourse

By studying and analyzing the Pedigree woman, then we will learn to achieve the same classy style and mannerisms by breaking lessons down to actionable steps.

How to attain classiness in dressing and mannerisms. Classy First Steps

Fascinating Womanhood Ecourse

Alright, that's all for now, I'll be there talking to you all on twitter and Facebook (and writing more pages for elegantwoman.org)

Thanks for reading!

Shalom (which in hebrew means wishing you peace, wholeness, perfect health and well-being), Eunice

P.s. By the way, I also have twitter! My tweets are kind of boring.

My blog or have joined elegantwoman.org's Facebook page

Go back to The Elegant Woman.