Dealing with child’s “races” during meal
Running around a child with a spoon and food all over the kitchen is a usual thing in most families. But sooner or later table manners for kids become necessary.
No doubt, parents want a child to sit and have a meal like a normal human being, but all a kid does is grabs some food and continues racing around the room. The sooner you start teaching kids table manners, the better it gets for them and you as parents.
Why does a child refuse to sit at the table?
“Grab a bite” – one of the most widespread mistakes. Quite often, in-between meals, parents give a child a cookie or some candy. As a result, the child does not want to eat, or a little one is used to grabbing a bite and continuing to play.
The child needs control and order. This behavior is peculiar to children, who have a hard time organizing themselves. In this case, do not yell at the child. A little one needs to understand that parents love it no matter what. The best option would be to sit down with the kid and prevent it from running away while giving instructions.
Difficult to get used to kindergarten. Very often, parents encounter situations when children have had no problem with sitting at the table, but after going to kindergarten, their behavior has changed. This is only a matter of time when such behavior changes to normal. After a period of adaptation, a child will stop running around during a meal. Usually, a little one adapts to the behavior of other children.
The child is very active by nature. A child has ants in his pants. You have no other option than to introduce a little one to different games and activities, which will help a kid burn this amount of energy and finally sit down calmly.
Teaching a child to eat at the table
You have a good chance of avoiding “kitchen races” if you properly teach a child to eat at the table. To succeed, you need to:
Teach a child to sit at the table with the whole family from a very young age. A kid will see and adopt the correct manners. Even if a child is in a highchair, you should turn it to a table instead of a TV.
Remove the TV from the kitchen. Watching television while eating is harmful to everyone! Speaking about kids, it can get addicted to watching TV. As a result, a little one will refuse to sit at the table unless you turn on the television.
Praise children for attempts to eat at the table.
To motivate a child, even more, you can involve a little one in the cooking process. For instance, together with a mother, a child can make and decorate a salad for a father. As a result, after these creative activities, a child will be the first to run to the kitchen. And you can praise children along the process.
While sitting at the table, a child has to try different food. Usually, parents feed children with ground food for too long. That is why meals get very boring and uninteresting.
Parents can get a child’s interest in modern cooking tools. For instance, by using cooking scissors, you can cut out some interesting figures from vegetables. You will make mealtime very interesting for a little one, and they will be looking forward to it.
Like anything else, teaching a child to sit at the table is natural, but at the same time a challenging process, which requires your patience and control. So use these tips to make table manners for kids easy and fun.
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