"Earlier this year, I realized that dinnertime had gotten out of hand at my house. It seemed like each of my five family members spent half of our mealtime together complaining about each other's poor manners. My teens often didn't love that their younger siblings would interrupt during conversations or chew with their mouths open. Everyone made their feelings known."
"I came up with the idea of making a simple poster of rules to hang up in our kitchen. The plan was to start with two rules, adding an additional rule or two each week depending on how things were going. We didn't want to overwhelm anyone, and we were trying to be reasonable. The goal was to build skills slowly, and hopefully, with practice, the skills would stick."
"At first, the kids changed their tattling from pointing out a random act of bad manners to calling each other out on the rules on the list. For example, our first two rules were to stay in your seat and chew with your mouth closed. The kids hounded each other, meal after meal, including when either of us parents broke a rule."
A family experienced chaotic mealtimes with members frequently complaining about poor manners, interruptions, and open-mouth chewing. Parents introduced a simple, visible poster of table rules and implemented the rules gradually, starting with two and adding one or two each week. Initial rules required staying seated and chewing with mouths closed. Children shifted from random tattling to enforcing the posted rules and calling each other out during meals. The poster provided an easy reference for parents to restore order. The incremental, practice-based approach aimed to build lasting mealtime skills without overwhelming the children.
Read at Business Insider
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