Parent’s Guide

This simple guide can be used when teaching children about proper table manners.  Use what you feel is appropriate for your own culture, traditions, or religious beliefs. And, introduce only what you feel your child can handle. Dining together, setting good examples, and role playing can help children understand and physically experience the proper behavior that is expected of them, so remember to practice both inside and outside of the home.

·         We put away our electronic games, music players, and gadgets for this special time with our friends.

·         We wash our hands before our meal.

·         We remove our hats and our sunglasses before we sit at the table.

·         We do not lean things against the table, or place things like purses, shoes, and feet on the table.

·         We sit up straight in our chairs and stay seated throughout the meal, excusing ourselves to use the restroom.

·         We try to keep from leaning our elbows against the table.

·         We unfold our napkins and place them neatly on our laps to catch spills and dropped food.

·         We wait for everyone at the table to be served their food before we begin eating.

·         We politely ask for something to be passed to us, if it is out of our reach.  We don’t reach over someone, to get what we need.

·         We remember our manners and say, “Please,” “Thank you,” and “No, thank you.”  

·         We stay seated to pass serving dishes and other items hand-to-hand, from one person to the other, around the table.

·         When serving ourselves, we do not touch or take a bite from food, and then return it to the serving dish. If we touch something, we eat it!

·         We use proper utensils both to serve ourselves and to eat our food, unless the food is meant to be eaten with our fingers. We do not push food onto our fork or spoon with our fingers.

·         We do not serve ourselves more than our share, unless we are offered another serving. There may not be enough food for second helpings.

·         If we are not sure we will like the food we are being offered, we serve ourselves a small bite-sized portion, and taste a small piece.

·         If we don’t like the food we’ve tasted, we try to swallow what is in our mouths. We don’t make face, make noises, complain, spit it out, or put it back on the serving platter. If we must, we remove unwanted food or bones from our mouths using our napkin.

·         We eat over our plates, facing the table.

·         We eat bite-size small portions. If food is too big, and we can't cut it ourselves, we ask for help.

·         We take our time eating and enjoy the company. It is not a race.

·         During the meal, we place used utensils along the edge of our plate. We do not lay them on the table.

·         We use our napkins to wipe our mouths and clean our hands. We do not wipe our hands on our clothes, or the tablecloth.

·         If we drop a utensil or napkin, we ask the server or host to get us another. We do not crawl under the table to get them, or reuse them

·         When getting up from the table for a moment, we place our used napkins in our chairs, not on the table.

·         We chew quietly, with our mouths closed. We do not slurp our drinks or soup, gargle, blow in our straw, or smack our lips at the table.

·         We do not talk with our mouths full of food.  We wait and swallow our food before we talk.

·         We do not sing at the table during the meal.

·         We cover our mouths with our napkins to sneeze, and we excuse ourselves and go into a bathroom to pick our teeth or blow our noses.

·         We do not wave our utensils in the air, for fear of injuring someone, knocking over something, or launching food

·         We do not throw food, or play with the food on our plate.

·         We do not play with each other, our hair, our pets, our clothes, our chair, our napkins, or other objects that are on or around the table.

·         Some meals come in courses, such as soup, salad, main dishes, and dessert. When we finish eating each course, we place our used utensils gently across our dish at about 10 and 4 o’clock.

·         At the end of the meal, we place our used napkins on the table.

·         Before we get up from the table, we ask our host if we may be excused, and remember to say, “Thank you,” for our meal.