You and Your Child

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXII, 18 April 1939, Page 2

You and Your Child

(By Jane Herbert Goward)

CHILD SHOULD LEARN TABLE MANNERS EARLY Although Billy is almost two and is rapidly gaining a vocabulary for making his wants known, he sits in a baby's high-chair at meatltimes and is fed by his mother. Soon this child will have playmates. Already he enjoys being with other little children. They grab things and push each other. Sometimes they get hurt and cry. But still they want to be together. Crude as these social relationships are, each child acquires special friends before long, and then come invitations to parties. At such functions Billy’s table manners will be no credit to his mother. Nor will it be fun for Billy, either, when, ashamed to let mother feed him, he helps himself and awkwardly spills food on the table and himself. His helplessness is sure to be noticed by the children and their mothers, and he may even hear himself talked about or ridiculed. Then when they get home mother may express disgust because be behaved like such a baby at table. That is how it is with many mothers. They do not think about a child’s table manners until a social engagement presents itself. Then they either lecture him before hand on what he must or must not do, or scold him afterward. Table manners are a burden only when one has to think about them. A child who has his own small table and is accustomed to being served nicely is bound to acquire neat ways at the table. But if one eats in a high-chair or is served on a porcelain-top table where spills are easily wiped up and hence do not count, careless eating habits are inevitable. Use a cover on the little child’s table. An attractive oilcloth one will do. Set his place as for company, with his own dishes if possible. Provide a napkin. Serve him small portions; or, better still, let him help himself from the serving dish. This will make him eager for a large or second helping and inspire better appetite as well as better table manners. Get him a pitcher and | let him pour his own milk. Praise him j for neatness and skill. Make him proud

I-—— ■ !| of his accomplishments, and it won’t be 1 necessary to nag about manners