Do you teach your kids table manners?

[npmommie]

Like not sticking their fingers in other peoples food? or do you write it off as " well he is just 6 he doesn't know any better?

 

[Eeyore'sthebest]

Umm, yep. We teach table manners though sometimes I feel I'm talking to myself.

My Dsis took the "she's only X" until my DD, 3 months younger, would show her up at family dinners. Her thinking quickly turned around.

My DH has a niece that used to sit in the middle of the table and eat off of everyone else's plate. They kept saying "She's only 4." DH ended up being their babysitter for one summer and that rule quickly changed. She was eating normally by the time he left.

 

[HM]

SIX?...yes, at six they should know manners of all types and use them. If they were TWO, I'd cut some slack, but really.......

 

[jrmasm]

Nope, table manners are for sissies.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

We don't do the full on etiquette lessons, but we do our best to have the basics don't so our children don't look like vultures fighting over a carcass and speak to them accordingly if their behaviro gets out of line.

 

[NMAmy]

My DH has a niece that used to sit in the middle of the table and eat off of everyone else's plate.

Good heavens! I'm glad your DH was able to get her to stop that!

Yes, I taught dd table manners. I also taught her how to properly eat different foods like lobster, crab, artichokes, etc so she'd never be embarassed by not knowing how to tackle something.

 

[pls5286]

Not just table manners, such as napkin in the lap, use your utensils, chew with you mouth closed, no hats at the table, but full on manners at my house. Yes ma'am, No Ma'am. Please, Thank You, Etc. Manners are not an option at my house. Were taught as they learned to talk.

 

[Mickey's Minion]

I try.

One of my pet peeves is seeing a grown person at the table holding their fork in their fist while cutting their meat. I acknowledge it is completely stupid for this to bother me, but blame my mother for being so anal about table manners when I was a kid.

I will consider it a success if my children grasp the basics; napkin on lap, mouth closed while chewing, proper holding of knife and fork, no leaning over plate with your nose almost touching.

 

[Arielle22]

Once my daughters were feeding themselves I started training them.

I agree with the PP that it also included all manners. When I have my 4 yr old nephew I train him the same way.

 

[cntrygal]

yeah. why would you not?

 

[dawson5]

my soon to be 19 yr old niece has atrocious manners. It's a pet peeve of mine. The niece chews with her mouth open, talks with it full of food and uses her spoon and fork like a shovel. I feel bad for her, I can't imagine what a guy does when he takes her out for something to eat. My kids have the basics down, not as bad as my grandmother or great grandmother but they don't do any of the aforementioned things. I have never been a stickler for the no elbows rule but for the most part they don't do this anyways. My biggest problem is with the middle DS and cramming his mouth full. He takes huge bites of things. We've gone to dinner (Red Lobster) and I had hubby switch spots with me because the girl directly across from me chewed like a cow. He thought I was over-reacting until he sat there for 10 minutes. It's like a train wreck, you can't help but look.

 

[rie'smom]

Yes, table manners are very important! If one of my children had ever stuck their fingers in other people's food, I'd have slapped them into next week and I never spanked my kids.
As I've posted before good etiquette is being considerate of other people. Why wouldn't anyone want their kids to think of others?

 

[mizkris]

Not just table manners, such as napkin in the lap, use your utensils, chew with you mouth closed, no hats at the table, but full on manners at my house. Yes ma'am, No Ma'am. Please, Thank You, Etc. Manners are not an option at my house. Were taught as they learned to talk.

Absolutely!

My father was HUGE on table manners....huge on manners period! And I'm soooo happy he was!

 

[DVC Sadie]

Not just table manners, such as napkin in the lap, use your utensils, chew with you mouth closed, no hats at the table, but full on manners at my house. Yes ma'am, No Ma'am. Please, Thank You, Etc. Manners are not an option at my house. Were taught as they learned to talk.

Yes, this is how we taught our child and our neices and nephews when they are with us.

 

[npmommie]

yeah. why would you not?

Yes, table manners are very important! If one of my children had ever stuck their fingers in other people's food, I'd have slapped them into next week and I never spanked my kids.
As I've posted before good etiquette is being considerate of other people. Why wouldn't anyone want their kids to think of others?

Yes i teach my kids good manners, absolutely.
the reason I thought of this was yesterday after swimming a few of us went to this cafe, they have sandwiches, smoothies, etc........
my dd was eating a sandwich, and a 6 yo little boy of a friend of mine, came over and sat next to her, and started whining, he wanted some of her food, and stuck his finger in her sandwich, I could see my poor dd's face get like "ewwwww" ( she is 9yo)
his mom said nothing, and he did it again, so I corrected him and told him not to stick his fingers in her food!
he kept whining that his mom wouldn't get him a sandwich and he wanted hers LOL.......it was kind of annoying that the mom did not correct him at all, just was oblivious, like she thought my dd should hand over her food for him to take a bite! LOL

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

Yes i teach my kids good manners, absolutely.
the reason I thought of this was yesterday after swimming a few of us went to this cafe, they have sandwiches, smoothies, etc........
my dd was eating a sandwich, and a 6 yo little boy of a friend of mine, came over and sat next to her, and started whining, he wanted some of her food, and stuck his finger in her sandwich, I could see my poor dd's face get like "ewwwww" ( she is 9yo)
his mom said nothing, and he did it again, so I corrected him and told him not to stick his fingers in her food!
he kept whining that his mom wouldn't get him a sandwich and he wanted hers LOL.......it was kind of annoying that the mom did not correct him at all, just was oblivious, like she thought my dd should hand over her food for him to take a bite! LOL

My 2yo doesn't even do that.

And we don't go all out with Emily Post here. But 6yo is certainly too old to be behaving like a brat over hunger let alone have those kind of bad manners.

 

[MIGrandma]

When I was waitressing I saw a lot of "dining habits" with children. Some good and some not so good. I loved waiting on people who had children that had good table manners, and said please and thank-you when speaking to me.

Then there were the children that wouldn't stay in their seat, played with the sugar packets and creamers (thus getting their little germs all over them for the next person who really wanted to use them), didn't know what a napkin was for (or eating utensils either), and were just general little heathens.

 

[kafitty]

When I was waitressing I saw a lot of "dining habits" with children. Some good and some not so good. I loved waiting on people who had children that had good table manners, and said please and thank-you when speaking to me.

Then there were the children that wouldn't stay in their seat, played with the sugar packets and creamers (thus getting their little germs all over them for the next person who really wanted to use them), didn't know what a napkin was for (or eating utensils either), and were just general little heathens.

i've seen all of this too!!

when little kids use "please" and "thank you", i always want to turn to their parents and say, "No, thank YOU!"

 

[DMickey28]

Like not sticking their fingers in other peoples food? or do you write it off as " well he is just 6 he doesn't know any better?

I use the write off excuse for my DS but he's TWO!! He says "Peas" almost always, we are working on "Tanks". He uses his napkin, stays in his seat for as long as you can expect a 2 year old too, but we don't let him run around, just fidget in his own area. He is getting better at using his utensils but sometimes get frustrated and starts to use his fingers. He tries to grab our forks/knives and we put a stop to that. He also does "Cheers" to start the meal and won't eat until we do that and take a sip of our drink.

Hopefully we can continue to teach him well. DH's mother never taught him great manners ... he is fine but his brother is HORRIBLE. It's awful to eat with him. She never taught him which hand for what and as a result he doesn't use the proper hands to cut and use the fork but he's not messy about it, holds the utensils property and you honestly wouldn't notice unless you watched him carefully. We talked about it once at a family dinner I think and her reasoning was ... "She let them learn what was comfortable for them." Luckily, DH disagrees with that!

 

[luvmy3]

Table manners are a must for my kids. One of my biggest pet peeves is seeing kids with horrible table manners, and an even bigger pet peeve is seeing their parents allow it