'Forkman' to the rescue: New book aims to teach kids table manners

Tiffany Caldwell remembers family dinners during her childhood well. When her elbows lingered on the table for too long or she was slouching at the table, she'd hear about it from Forkman, a character her father had conjured up to teach his kids some manners.

Posted 11:57 p.m. Apr 1, 2018 — Updated 7:21 p.m. Jul 13, 2018

Sarah Lindenfeld Hall

, Go Ask Mom editor

Tiffany Caldwell remembers family dinners from her childhood well. When her elbows lingered on the table for too long or she was slouching at the table, she'd hear about it from Forkman, a character her father had conjured up to teach his kids some manners.

"We would always laugh," Caldwell tells me, "but it was definitely something that stuck with us."

Now Caldwell and her father W.R. MacKenzie are bringing Forkman to life in a book series that aims to teach kids more than a little something about table manners. MacKenzie, a father of five, is a former bakery plant manager, who retired 18 months ago to work on the book series. MacKenzie, who now lives in Florida, spent his career with companies such as Hostess/Wonder Bread, Sara Lee and Earthgrains.

Caldwell is the mom of two with another on the way. She and her husband, a Marine, live on Camp Lejeune in Jacksonville, N.C. Caldwell, who has been working with children for a dozen years, is a teacher's assistant in the Onslow County school system and will finish her bachelor's degree soon.

"Tiffany and I feel that The Adventures of Forkman is needed in this day and age," MacKenzie tells me. "Too many families are missing the simple things when it comes to manners."

I checked in with the father-daughter duo to learn more about their book, "The Adventures of Forkman." Here's a Q&A:

Go Ask Mom: So this all started at the family dinner table years ago. Tell us about those conversations.

W.R. MacKenzie: This started when Tiffany and her sister Brittany were small. The reason I made up the character "Forkman" is funny in itself. When I was small, my father would take the butt end of a knife and tap my elbow if I had them on the table. I could not do that to my little girls, so I would take a fork and say to them "Forkman says get your elbows off the table" or "Forkman says sit up straight" and so on. it was a fun way for them to learn.

Tiffany Caldwell: When my sisters and I were growing up, my parents and grandparents always made sure manners were a priority. We were given countless etiquette books and we attended etiquette classes as well. At the dinner table, my dad would correct us if our table manners weren’t the best, but in a fun way! We were very young when the character Forkman came to life.

GAM: How did "The Adventures of Forkman" finally come about?

WRM: In 2010, I was between jobs after leaving Sara Lee, and Tiffany came to me and said " we should write a book about Forkman!" At first I laughed it off, but we continued to discuss the idea and wrote a short manuscript. I applied for a copyright and we both worked on it for a while.

Our first publishing attempt was in 2013 with Tate Publishing. That was NOT a good experience. When we tried to publish our second chapter, we found out that Tate went out of business and basically took our money, no royalties ... a complete loss. We are both very determined people (she gets it from me) and went with another publisher, basically starting all over again with Mascot Publishing. Only now we are bigger and better.

GAM: What kind of topics do you tackle in the book?

WRM: Topics are simple. Forkman teaches children basic manner and functions when dealing with a family meal from setting the table to cleaning up to the noises you should not make at the table to those magic words "Please and Thank You."

GAM: Why do you think this is such a trying topic for parents, who are tired of seeing the bad manners, and kids, who are tired of the nagging?

TC: I think this is such a trying topic for parents because there just doesn’t seem to be enough time in the day for what used to be a normal thing - having dinner as a family. We are in a world of technology where kids are used to being in front of iPads and TVs. We have forgotten the importance of enjoying a family meal and the time we spend together.

I think this book is a fun, easy way to learn about table manners. Children and even adults can relate to the fun characters. We are hoping it will not only teach children proper manners, but it will bring families back together!

GAM: What's next?

TC: The next steps for us is to continue getting our first book out to the public so we can publish the next four books. We already have some prototypes made for stuffed animals, and we have other ideas for box sets, apps and more!

Go Ask Mom features local moms every Monday.

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