Helping Children With Manners

Most families have established their own table manners that are important to them. Here are a few that should be remembered when you are at home and when you are a guest

• Never reach for any food that is not right in front of you. Ask someone to pass it. And if you are passing something, don't help yourself along the way.
• If your food is too hot, wait for it to cool. Don't blow on it.
• If you put something in your mouth that's too hot, don't spit it out. Reach for your water and take a quick swallow.
• Don't talk with your mouth full.
• Bring your food up to your mouth rather than bending over to reach it.

• There are a few additional rules for eating in a restaurant:
• Don't be upset if you spill something. It happens all the time. The waiter will clean it up.
• Don't pick up your silverware if you drop it on the floor. Ask the waiter to replace it for you.
• Don't put packages or handbags on the table.
• Don't comb your hair at the table.
• Don't use a toothpick in public.

We all know that we have certain responsibilities when we are the host or hostess. But there are responsibilities when one is a guest that are equally important. Here are a few of them:

• Don't go visiting unless you're expected.
• Don't overstay your invitation.
• Don't expect to be waited on. Offer to help.
• Don't plan to stay overnight without consulting the hostess and your parents.
• Don't upset the family's routine. Try to fit in and( your part.
• Don't make extra work. Make your bed, straighten up after yourself.
• Be sure to say thank you for a meat or an overnight visit at a friend's house.

[Click here for useful books on helping kids with manners]

Manners on the Street

Unless you are at home or at a friend's house, you are on public property. Bemuse this property is used by many people, it is especially important that everyone use common sense and good manners. Here are some street don'ts:

• Don't walk in bunches so that you block others.
• Don't stop to chat in the middle of the sidewalk. Step to the side so that people won't have to move around you.
• Don't stare at or make fun of anyone, no matter how strange he may look.
• Don't be a litterbug.
• Don't mark on buildings or other public property.
• If you bump into someone or step on his toe, say you're sorry.

[Click here for useful books on helping kids with manners]

A Final Note to Parents

You have most likely already dealt with most of the above suggestions with your child. However, when it comes to manners, children need frequent reminders. One of the best ways to teach manners is to role-play, the parent takes the role of host or hostess, guest, salesperson, someone at the other end of the telephone, etc. This reduces the child's conception that the parent is nagging, and it is a technique that works.

Useful Books On Helping Kids With Manners

Elbows Off the Table, Napkin in the Lap, No Video Games During Dinner : The Modern Guide to Teaching Children Good Manners (A useful guide for parents).

Goops and How to be Them : A Manual of Manners for Polite Children Inculcating Many Juvenile Virtues Both by Precept and Example (A fun book for parents and children to read together).

Elmo's Good Manners Game (A delightful book for preschoolers from Sesame Street)

The Culprit Was a Fly (A humorous approach to manners for school age children)

Finishing Touches for Teens : Beauty, Etiquette, and Self-Esteem for Your Changing World (A book for teenage girls and boys too).

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