I want my children to be well-mannered. I want them to know how to properly sit at a table and eat and drink correctly. I want my children to be polite as well as friendly and kind.
When I was a little girl my family ate dinner together at the kitchen table. Mom and Dad taught us kids how to behave while we tried to or not to kill each other. My family’s lifestyle is different, though. We don’t typically eat dinner together. Jessie has her own table and chairs where she eats her dinner early. Chris and I eat together while watching our shows after Jessie goes to bed. This arrangement works out well with Chris’s work hours too. I’m sure that when Jessie gets older we’ll start the dinner tradition. Jessie does very well when we go out to eat. She puts her napkin in her lap and is getting much better with holding her utensils.
I am very big on saying please and thank-you. They are so easy to add to anything and really make a good impression. I worked at a preschool and was shocked at the negative reaction from many parents when I required the children to say please and thank-you during snack time. Please and thank-you are among the first signs that Jessie learned. She doesn’t sign thank-you very much anymore, but she always signs please while she says it and sometimes signs instead of speaking.
I am now teaching Jessie to answer questions with either yes please or no thank-you. She’s grasping the yes please, but is having a harder time with no thank-you. I know she’ll get them.
Once when I was prompting her for the please after yes she went in an entirely different direction and said yes ma’am. That works too.