Family Eating Habits

Table manners differ in every home – example is by far the best way to get your child to behave as you want because he will inevitably copy your pattern of family eating. Children who are brought up from an early age to sit round a table with other members of the family will soon pick up on adult cues, learn not to interfere with other people’s food, to ask if they want more and to handle cutlery as you do. If meals are sociable, chatty occasions, they will also eventually learn something about taking turns to talk, although this is quite a sophisticated task. Try not to make your baby or young child the focus of too much attention at family gatherings because he can become self-conscious or start to show off.

Remember that if eating off your lap in front of the television or snatching a snack on the move is more your family’s style, you cannot expect a young child to know how to behave at the occasional, more formal meal, when visiting relatives, friends or at Christmas time, so make allowances for him.

Usually, we tend to follow similar patterns of both what and how we eat to those of our parents, but eating rituals vary with different cultures. Children of other nationalities may be brought up with the food and customs of their parents’ country and only later learn about the different, Westernised, habits they may see in the homes of friends or when they are out.