Guest Author - Susan Thompson

Teaching manners is still an important part of being a parent. Teaching manners starts with the basic please and thank you. If you think about it, manners extend way beyond the basics. I cannot tell you how many kids I know who can walk into a room full of people, and not even acknowledge one person. During my child hood that would almost be punishable. Needless to say I came from a very strict family when it came to manners

Children learn very early in life by watching what other people do. This is true for learning manners. If your child constantly hears things like “Give me that” or “Don’t touch that”, that is what your child will learn as opposed to “Can I please have that” or “Please don’t touch that. Thank you.”

Children also learn from repetition. When they want a cookie, and don’t use the word please or thank you, you will have to consistently remind them. It feels like you are harping on them, but they will eventually learn good manners.

Saying good morning when they get up, and good night before they go to bed are big in my house. I have teenagers, and for some reason, they think of this as an interruption of their time. I think of it as polite.

Children should be taught not to interrupt when someone else is speaking, and wait their turn. I know some adults who have a problem grasping the idea of this one, how will their children learn it.

Good manners also consist of saying hello to people when they enter a room, opening a door for someone when they are carrying an arm full of packages, holding a door for the people behind you, and you may think I am old fashioned, but your son should be taught to open the car door for his date.

Another area that should be considered part of good manners is teaching your children respect for differences. Whether it is race, religion, social status, or gender, children should be taught to respect that all people are different from them in some way and they should respect that difference.

Table manners are also very important. Children as young as three should be able to sit at a table during a meal with out getting up and running around disturbing the meals of other people at the table. Talking at the table is fine, as long as there is no food in their mouth. Chewing with an open mouth is never pretty, and using your fingers on anything that is not finger food is always a no-no.

Here’s to a day full of good manners. Thank you for stopping at the Early Childhood site, please come back again.