Teaching Kids to Not Reach at the Table

Video Transcript

"An important rule to teach your child for table manners is that they should ask for something when they want it passed across the table. They should never reach out over anybody else or across the table because for one thing it's not polite, for another thing you run the risk of you know putting your sleeve into someone else's plate or into a dish, and that not only will stain your clothes, but will actually ruin somebody else's dinner. So you know teach them to ask you know for the you know "can you pass the bread please" you know "may I have the butter" that sort of thing. And it's always a good idea to go ahead and practice with your kids. Don't tell them once and then you know just go crazy the first time that they forget because kids are going to forget a million times. But a really good way to get them to learn and to create a habit out of the things that you are teaching them, or to create habits out of things that you are teaching them, is to actually practice them. So it's a fun way you know you can make a little game out of it and go around the table and everybody takes a turn at asking for someone else to pass them something, whether it's the salt or the pepper and it's just it's fun. And I think it's really important when your trying to teach your children table manners that you make it fun, because otherwise they're going to be resistant and you don't want to have the time that you spend together as a family at the table be stressful. You want it to be light and fun and you want to engage your children. And you know sometimes if your kind of out of conversation at the end of the day with your little ones playing a game like that, may you know "will you pass the butter" that sort of thing can actually really kind of get conversation going and get a lot of giggles and it's a fun way to spend time together."