The Importance of Manners

In our view, manners are important as good manners gives your child a huge social advantage – by understanding good manners they will understand what is socially acceptable behaviour, it will give them the skills to get on with others and very importantly be liked by both peers and adults.

Table Manners

It is sad but today children can grow up without learning any table manners because they don’t eat at the table! They may have never sat down and eaten as a family, they may only eat convenience foods with their fingers or there has never been an expectation to sit down whilst eating. By not understanding basic table manners, your child will be considerably disadvantaged as they will not have the skills to eat appropriately with others. As a family it can also limit your lifestyle and experiences with food – if your kids are poorly behaved your friends probably won’t be too forth coming to have the family over for dinner…and it will be genuinely difficult to eat out in any sort of relaxed manner.

Yum Yum Tips to Help Teach your Kids Good Table Manners

Introducing good table manners doesn’t need to be stressful – below are some of our ideas to help –

• Model good behaviour - Remember your actions speak louder than words!! Explain and consistently demonstrate good table manners such as –

·       eating with your mouth closed

·       not making loud chewing noises

·       not spitting food

·       not starting to eat until everyone is sitting and has their meal

·       saying please and thank-you

·       saying excuse me if they wish to interrupt or ask a question

·       not too much food in your mouth at one time

·       asking for food to be passed rather than reaching over others

·       requesting to be excused from the table

• Eat at the table - right from the time you introduce solids, involve your baby in mealtime and make sure they are sitting.  Eat together as a family whenever you can and consistently reinforce the importance of sitting at the table whenever eating or drinking. The Metoo highchair, Little Beetle highchair or Karboost chair raise are all great products to help involve your baby or toddler and help them to fell part of the family at mealtime.

This can be challenging particularly for toddlers and small children as they may not tolerate sitting down for an entire meal – but at least encourage them to eat what they wish sitting down, and allow them to leave the table when they’ve finished.   

• Involve your child -  teach your child to set the table, let them practice putting cutlery out -  forks on the left and knives/spoons on the right. Show your child how to use a knife/fork or chopsticks and encourage them to use them. Teach them how to place their knife and fork together on the plate when they’ve finished. Older kids can be responsible for removing their dirty dishes after dinner and putting them in the dishwasher or washing up.

Its important to highlight that the finer points of manners, for instance talking with a mouthful or reaching over others probably won’t be grasped by children until they are about five years old, so don’t expect too much – just persevere and keep kindly reminding them. 

Other articles of interest -

• A Child's Nutritional Needs
• Helping Kids Develop Healthy Attitudes Toward Food
• How to Combat Fussy Eating