Teaching good manners in children is a very important part of their upbringing and education.
It is an important issue as a recent study done by the Public Gender Research Group in 2004 showed that 80% of Americans feel that there is a serious problem with courtesy and manners in this country.
It is up to you, as parents, to teach your child how to behave properly.
So here are a couple of tips.
First of all, make sure you teach your child not to criticize. When a child does something wrong at the table, and children do things wrong, do not make fun of him.
For example, if a child burps at the table, simply tell them to say “Excuse me” when that happens, if it happens. Just remind the child that to say excuse me. The next thing to do is to make sure you start teaching them manners at a very early age.
How early is early?
I will give you an example. My youngest child is a year and a half old. We are already teaching him to say “please” and “thank you.” Now, he says about two of three words. He says “daddy”, “banana”. He does not say “please” or “thank you.”
But, when he wants something we teach him, “Say please. Do you want a banana? Say, please banana or thank you after we give you a banana.” The fact that he hears this every so often makes an impression on him.
Eventually when he can ask for things, he will know that he must say “please” and say “thank you” after he receives them.
The next thing to do is to teach your child privately, not in front of people. You do not want to embarrass your child ever. You do not want to embarrass anybody. When your child does something inappropriate, wrong, or shows poor manners, you want to correct them privately.
Another thing to do is to prepare your child in advance for situations that require good manners. When he is going to a friend or a family member’s house, or is going out to dinner with you, make sure you prompt him to say “please” and “thank you”, as well as thank to the host of the house.
The next step, once your child does know good manners, he knows to say please, thank you, and knows to behave properly expect him to naturally continue and develop that way. Manners are something that he should always view as normal, everyday behavior.
Expect it from him once he knows he should behave that way. A good time to teach manners is at the dinner table, at meal time, family time.
Be prepared to teach manners then.
The main thing to remember is that you want to instill manners at an early age and have your child behave appropriately. It is good for your child because a child who behaves appropriately will be a well respected child.
It will be a good reflection on your child and on you as a parent.
