The meals together with children are often not as harmonious as the parents wish. The little ones lack the necessary table manners and sitting meat. Children learn the correct behavior at the dinner table mainly through imitation and through clear rules.
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Scolding, forbidding, punishing - as in most cases, this is the unfavorable way even with the common meals. If you want to eat harmoniously with your children, you must first and foremost live the desired behavior on the dining table. If you do not want your kids to lick the knife, do not do it yourself, the same applies to propped-up elbows, mouth-to-mouth speeches, and anything else that can disturb parents sitting at their children's table. However, there are other points to keep in mind to make your child a pleasant companion.
At about one to one and a half years, children want to eat their own. Should they too, because the sooner children can eat independently, the sooner the meals will become more relaxed for the parents. It is important that you do not overwhelm your child. A two-year-old just can not eat, without occasionally spilling and taking his fingers; The fewest four-year-olds manage to eat with a knife and fork. Equip your child with age-appropriate crockery - preferably made of unbreakable material -, serve the dishes in a child-friendly way and let it experiment a bit. "Help me to do it myself" applies here as well as in other learning processes.
That some behavior is not desirable, of course, is clear. Hints and instructions on how to behave at the dinner table and what is definitely taboo, support the child and show in addition to the past life of the parents, as the food at the table is right. Consequence is just as important as the appeal to children's understanding. If a child knows the reason for a particular rule, it will be easier for them to follow.
Children first have to learn how to behave when eating and of course they experiment with their limits. In some typical situations, one can respond consistently and calmly, giving the child a sense of proper behavior:
Pushing, like in other situations, does not help at all. Consider the individual pace of your child's meal. The situation is difficult to master, especially if you also expect your child to sit there until all have finished eating. Bigger children can finish eating while the rest of the family gets up and the table is cleared.
If you admonish your child once or twice, if it still does not sit, you can warn the child that the plate will be cleared the next time you get up. You have to stay consistent and the child may not get something to eat five minutes later.
If your child refuses to eat because they are not hungry, then leave it and give it later. If the refusal is in defiance, it should sit at the table until all the others are done. However, there is no dessert and no "spare meal" five or ten minutes later.
Whenever there is something on the table that the child likes, extra sausages are unnecessary. But let your child decide for himself which of the offered dishes he wants to eat.
To teach children good food manners, it is also important that they get respect for the food and its value. Thus, with consistent and meaningful rules and the advocacy of parents, each child will become a pleasant table companion with good manners over time.
