Here are some easy ways to engage your child in learning good manners.
Please
Please is a very important word in a child’s vocabulary. It shows respect, patience, and compassion. Too often they pass up that one word for the quick action of taking. But here is how to help them grow. Next time your little one wants something, have a please-fest. See who can say “please” the most and fastest. That will make her/him laugh up a storm while the repetition forms a neural pathway between “wanting” and saying “please”. The more often you do it, the more often they will say it first and as they age it will become less of a competition and more of a ritual that leaves a warm fuzzy memory.
Interrupting
While they’re young, it might seem cute, but it’s good for children to learn that there are rules in conversation. Now, this one can be tricky to teach. The need to interrupt generally stems from the feeling of being ignored. Try this. Have your child come up and touch your arm when they want to speak to you. Put your hand over theirs to acknowledge that you see them there and will speak to them in a moment. This physical signal is a good way for parents to tell children that they will get their turn to speak.
Being Polite
By this, I simply mean keeping opinions that would be considered rude to yourself. Now this one can be tricky since young kids don’t have any idea what is socially acceptable. If your young toddler does say something you consider “inappropriate” the best thing to do is to smile it off and gently explain afterwards why it was rude. Teaching older kids to use their filter can be quite fun. Make flashcards with good terms and bad terms and make masks with silly faces and somber faces. Read the flash card and tell them to lift the appropriate mask. It is a great way to develop word association. Plus, what’s better than a game night?
Thank You
Thank you is pretty easy. Children pick it up quickly. Be sure to reward children for remembering to use it and it’ll stick. This can be done with sticker charts, occasional treats, or even just words of praise!
Practice What You Preach
By far the best way to teach good manners is to practice what you preach in an upbeat manner. Make sure say please and thank you because parents are the ones who sculpt the children, and the best way to raise a mindful child is to be a mindful adult. Good luck!
Like these children’s books about manners. Click on the photo for more information.
About Fiona Longmuir
Fiona Longmuir is a Marketing Manager at Stork Up, which is a new online store for parents to discover products from over 250 parenting websites. StorkUp was created to help moms navigate the world of kids’ products. It’s a unique shopping experience where our growing community of moms can discover, collect and buy from an entirely crowd-sourced catalogue of fabulous products and stores all in one location.
How old was your child when you started teaching them how to use their manners?
Comments
11 responses to “5 Fun Ways to Teach Your Child Manners”
Hi Finona & Christy,
Isn’t this the toughest things parents have to do?! Teach their kids the right manners and do so effectively so that it’s embedded into them.
Yes, simple things like when and how to say the golden words like please, sorry, thank you, excuse me etc., are words that our kids have to learn and we have to teach them. Your post reminded me of the time when my kids were small – though I wouldn’t say that parenting ends when kids grow up. I think it never really ends 🙂
Thanks for sharing. Have a nice week ahead, both of you 🙂
Thank you for stopping by Harleena being a parent is never ending even after the kids are grown and gone. It is easier to do your best to teach them at a young age so that it becomes a habit. 🙂
So tough! A lot of kids anymore don’t seem to have manners, but then again, neither do so many adults! I left the mall yesterday and held the door open for a woman behind me. She looked right at me, took the door, and kept going. Not a peep. (She could speak, I’d heard her earlier LOL) Adults have to model manners.
My youngest was one of those who would have a tantrum in the store, but with his autism, it was unavoidable. We learned later the lights hurt his ears, as they emit a low hum. (Who knew? Things we didn’t realize, he could hear like they were a freight train.) We had to take him out to teach him, but in very small doses since we didn’t want him to think that behavior was okay. No one wants to be shopping around kids milling all over while mom chats on her cell, I see it all the time. Great post!
I agree there are so many children out there who don’t know even the basics: please, thank you, or your welcome. I always try my best to model the behavior for my own children because they need to see me doing it as well. Thank you for sharing Dee.
What an interesting article and even though I live in a little place in Europe called Denmark I can recognize the problems with children today. I think it is important children learns to say thank you and not to interrupt when they are old enough to practise it. I have 4 children and my youngest is 5 years old now. I started to practise my children the first manners when they were 3-4 years old and my eldest are a teenager now and she is a very polite and kind person.
Thank you for sharing your experience, we started when my youngest was little. At the age of two, he knows how to say please, thank you, and your welcome. 🙂
Manners are HUGE! Instilling good manners in a child is a great way to teach respect, kindness, and so much more. Great tips!
Yes, manners are huge in my house as well. We have always taught my youngest how to use his manners at an early age and it is amazing how quickly they learn. He knows how to say please, thank you, and your welcome. We model the behaviors that we want him to follow.
Amen, I’m a huge fan of manners although it’s not always the easiest thing to teach our kiddos. My 2 & 4 year old are quite polite although they both have a hard time with interrupting. I love the idea of the physical acknowledgement to remind them stop and wait! Thanks so much for sharing these! 🙂
Your welcome, I am glad that you found them helpful. 🙂
Today the reason why many kids go wayward or get dragged into the unwanted groups is because of parents not taking proper care of them. Being a parent, it becomes our responsibility to look after our kids, of course teach them good manners to respect others and be good to others. If done from the right age, the kids will feel wanted more. But of course small kids don’t have stable mind or don’t easily follow what we expect them to. Hence I believe blending such teachings with fun would actually reap greater benefits in the long run.