teaching toddlers some manners?

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Mind your manners

Don’t we just love our little angels when they are being exactly that? Of course, they can’t be mister + miss nice 24/7 + there will be times (a lot of them, really!) that they will get into our nerves. It would’ve been heaven on earth if our little ones behave nicely on every single occasion, but,  alas, they don’t + in comes our little problem.

If you were like me who’s a mum to a toddler (an almost -two-year-old-bundle-of-jostling-energy), it really isn’t a bad idea to be thinking of teaching our little ones to mind their manners this early. In fact, the earlier we instill the value in them, all the better, since they are not born with an innate ability to mind manners + it will require  constant teaching + reminding before they get the hang of it. Now is simply the best time to instill this in them.

Here are a few things you might want to try to encourage your kiddos to learn about manners:

• be a good role model to your tots – children’s minds are like sponge, they absorb everything around them + are sensitive to what is going on around them, the best way to inspire manners with your toddlers is to set a good example for them. they simply love to mimic what mum does anyway, right?

• bust the myth: it is never too early to teach it – as early as when your toddler started mumbling his words, you can try teaching him some pleasantries. My son started saying his “thanks” (or something that distinctly sounds like it) when he was a little over one year old, right after he heard us saying the word.

• inspire your tot to talk to adults -notice how they’d automatically recoil in front of an adult stranger? Mine does almost all the time. To make them feel comfortable, you can try practicing at home by teaching him some gestures when seeing someone for the first time, like shaking hands or giving high fives or just waving “hi”. At home I’d usually ask Jared to wave to anyone who arrives to say hi, that way, he’ll be accustomed to the gesture + it will also be a cool way to break the ice during first meetings, too.

• inspire your tot to share his toys + shine during playdates – sometimes they can be just so uncooperative + won’t simply share their toys no matter how you coax them. Real pain, right? But to encourage them to share their toys, expose them to a lot of different kids they can play with + after each playdate session, ask all the kiddos to put the toys away. That way the kiddos will realize that it will be a whole lot of fun to play with other kids + to share their toys with them.

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