Table manners for a 6 year old

Your husband is right but the only way to make the rules stick is to obey them at home as well.

Do YOU like it when other people's kids are "running wild" in restaurants?

Yes table manners are important, especially in restaurants. That's not a time
to let them "run wild" as you put it. I started teaching my daughter from early on how to hold the fork right, how to close her mouth while chewing and how to behave in a restaurants. Those things are important and a 6 year old is old enough to have learned these things.

It sounds to me like you're setting your daughter up to fail. (Please don't take this personally -- a lot of parents do this without thinking.) It sounds like dinners out are stressfull for all of you so your daughter acts up because she's stressed out.

Or maybe she's not really hungry.

We have dinner every night at the table, with real dishes and napkins and silverware and stemware. My son is the "water steward" -- he picks out a bottle of water for us all to share at the beginning of the meal and pours us each a glass and we have a toast. Then we sit and eat and discuss the day.

And then it's back to our usual bedlam.

So that's my advice.

Make meal times at home special times, even if you're eating canned soup or carry out pizza. If your daughter acts up, excuse her from the table --- don't nag and preach table manners. My son knows that the kitchen is closed after dinner. Sometimes he's not really hungry but he sits with us anyway, otherwise he's free to go off and do his own thing. Either way we get to enjoy or meal in peace -- which is what manners are all about, right?

Who are you talking to? Lily has a boy. Jane has a girl. Mine are grown and gone.

I was talking to the original poster. Sorry, I mixed my genders up.

Sorry too.

I'm all for young spirited children being a little mischievous and not sitting like little statues at a restaurant...BUT... nothing is more aggravating than at times when going out for an evening with my lady and sitting next to us is a child who is wailing and/or jumping up and down on seats in the next booth. Parents who can't or won't teach their children to behave appropriately at a restaurant should keep their children at home.

The rules at home could be a bit more relaxed'however, I can understand a dad who wants a certain degree of quiet at dinner table, too. Constant correction by a dad can be an issue, but constant correction is a lot different than setting specific behavior rules that children should follow without making them into little soldiers.

Sorry to pile on, but it is absolutely not ok to run a little bit wild in a restaurant unless you're in a place like Chuckie Cheese -- a place with a games arcade specifically looking to encourage that type of thing.

We had restaurant behavior rules that we invoked from the time my kids were toddlers. We reminded them before entering that we were about to enter a restaurant. I don't care if it's McDonald's or a 4star restaurant... unless there is a games area for playing games and running around... I don't want to be disturbed by kids who are being wild.

Also, even if he isn't running around being wild, voice levels should be kept down to the point that patrons at other tables don't hear your conversations. That goes for the adults too.

Maybe a bit more detail? What exactly is the kid doing wrong?

Hahahahahaha some people are just straight dellusional. How the flyin' **** are table manners important? Living is so much bigger, get your Be-ing off such meaningless ideals....

Your husband is right . He should be able to act appropriately by the age of six. It's not that hard to teach table manners - and shouldn't require 'discipline' - it should be how they're taught to eat from the time they can first hold a spoon.

Humans are not animals. We can develop restraint. Table manners ARE important.

But your husband should not embarass or admonish the child at the restaurant.
The kid should KNOW how to act, because it has been practiced at home and the setting has been explained to him - long before he even enters the eating place.

Spreading falsehood is no manners..

Hahahah love how you trashed him with that one! 2 points for Francis!

Don't laugh to loud, NAACP, Punkey is a respectable lady.

It was just a small slip of tongue..

Don't have kids, but vividly remember being a child in a restaurant.

If there is one thing I am grateful for is that I was taught proper manners at the dinner table.

We always went out to a restaurant once a week, as a family. Sometimes it was a local pizza place, sometimes a diner, or a middle of the road nice place, sometimes somewhere that was really swanky and expensive. I have a younger sister, and I can remember sitting in a jacket and tie required place, with her in a high chair.

It didn't matter where we were. We waited patiently for our table, seated ourselves, and did not get up unless we were going to the restroom. At six, being the 2nd youngest, I sat by my mom, while little sister sat on her other side. This way there was no need for me to have to get up and wander around "to tell her something" I remember being young enough where she, or a brother on the other side, had to cut up my food for me.

It was one of the highlights of my week to go out to a restaurant. It was thouroughly enjoyable. Looking back, I'm sure part of that was that no one had to get reprimanded at the table for doing the things I see so many other children doing today.
It wasn't restrictive, or overly disciplined. It was just what was expect if one went to a restaurant.

I do remember seeing other kids getting up and wandering, etc. and would wonder "What's wrong with them? Why don't they sit down?"
If we were with friends of my parents, it was fun listening to them discuss grown up things, trying to figure out how their world worked.

I remember once, when I was maybe 8, all 7 of us went to NYC, and we ended up eating at a really nice place. Really fancy. I was sitting there, taking it all in, and finally turned around and saw that our waiter was standing directly behind me, against the wall. He looked at me in what I thought was a stern manner, and I quickly whipped back around. A moment later, he came around and approached my mother, whispering something in her ear. I thought "Oh no! He's telling her I can't sit still!" She leaned toward him and listened, then suddenly beamed at me. She told me later that he had said he thought "the young one" (me) had wonderful manners. Of course, this didn't hurt his tip, but I'm sure he wouldn't have said anything if I'd been wandering all over.

I have never regreted being taught at an early age how to behave like a civilized person in public.

You maddam, are dellusional.

Small slip of tongue but packs alotta punch! Love it!

U know luck plays a very vital role in teaching table manners.

My nephew was 5 and lacked table manners. My sis tried training him but it was useless. One day while eating, my nephew was throwing food from his plate into my sis's and by mistake threw a big chunk of chicken in our neighbor's plate who was happend to be a policeman having his lunch.

My sis said, "Sorry! But he wont listen to us".

The policeman stared at my nephew with false rage and asked him to raise his hands and handcuffed him. And then took himt to his van and locked the doors from outside.

We told him, he was to be sent to Jail for not having gud table manners. Then ofcourse he cried his wits out and was ultimately rescued on the condition of good table manners.

But that taught the brat!

P.S. He started hating chicken BTW.