Are you raising 'Rude Eaters?'

As usual getting my breakfast with my morning paper at the canteen and this title (the above) caught my attention together with my friend Shirley. Both of us having toddlers and pre-schools find it intresting to talk and share about. It says, ' If you want your child to behave properly in restaurants, have her practice at dinner at home. Even young kids are capable of sitting patiently and politely for at least 15 minutes during the meal.'

The article made few lineup methods for better table manners lah..i.e: slurping soup from a bowl, playing with food, burping, eating with fingers etc..

Sometimes kids sip their soup straight from the bowl. So the method given here(paper)..tell your child of course it's a faster way to eat, but slurping is also noisy and yucky to watch. Demonstrate how to dip the spoon into the bowl and hold in a horizontal position and bring to the mouth, so soup doesn't dribble onto the table.

ah..burping..I ever caught my daughter doing this and I told them it's not appropriate especially infront of others. So the manners makeover here, tell your child to close their mouth when they feel one coming on and say "excuse me" afterward. Reduce their gassiness by avoiding carbonated beverages before and during meal.

I know its such a tedious task to make them behave when eating out. Sometimes you can feel all eyes watching when your toddler starting to throw things on the table..u know that feeling right? It happened last sunday when the family decided to have lunch at PizzaHut, there goes Isaac sat on a baby chair with fork and spoon drumming like the little drummer boy (maybe trying to get attention) napkins all under the table..ayaiyaii..well, that's my lil Isaac. I still prefer take-away/tapau ;-)