It is Christmas season, a time where we are likely to receive invited and uninvited guests, or have our friends and family pass by our homes on their way to their places of fun.
This is also a time when we may be hosting lunches and dinners with family and friends.
Whether we visit our loved ones, or they come to us, it is important for our kids to display good table manners. Depending on their age, it is a beautiful site to see kids portraying good table manners.
While it may be difficult for kids to get table manners etiquette right the first time, practice and leading by example will help you in your quest.
Child-care provider and employer-sponsored child care centre Bright Horizons shares the following few tips on what table manners to teach your child.
- Before each meal, teach your child to wash their hands.
- If it is formal dining, your child needs to place their napkin on their lap before commencing with their meal and use it later when indulging in their meal.
- When it is time to eat, your child must sit up straight, pull the chair closer to the table with feet and elbows off the table.
- Some kids get straight to their food when it is placed in front of them, you might want to explain to them that the right etiquette is to wait until everyone is seated and served. This is not to refuse your child a meal if they are too hungry before everyone is seated.
- Show your child how to use proper utensils.
- One habit kids like is to chew with their mouths open, this habit may require your consistency as they may go back to doing it once you’re away from them. While you’re at it, you may want to add that they should not talk with food in their mouth.
