Should a3year old sit at the table to eat

WLM21

Can you please settle a family argument ?

I think my 3y 3m Grandson should be made to sit at the table to eat AND stay there until his dinner or whatever is finished. I remember as a child having to do it, even ending up eating cold food if I messed around too much.

My wife thinks it is OK to run around and having some food every few minutes. Her excuse ... He is only 3.

Surely I am right. The sooner he learns to sit there, the better for everybody. We always eat at the table.

Luckily he only visits us, and doesn't stay with us all the time ... because mealtimes always seem troublesome because of this.

In the mornings, my wife likes to feed him porridge and he is running about, while she struggles to feed him. I just want to make things easier.

thank you

mikey72

I'm with you.
Mealtimes are the familty at the table.

Caroline_a

My 2 and a half grandson sits at the table for his meals and only gets down when he is told he can. There's nothing worse than going out for a meal where there are children charging around the place, and if you teach them early then it makes life easier for everyone!

PS why is your wife feeding him???

faerie~spangles

My 2yr old grand daughter is not allowed to eat anywhere other than at the table.

WLM21

So I AM RIGHT !!!!

Brilliant !!!

Many thanks !

.... Did I tell you. ... I was right after all ... wow !!

podperson

I would say 3 is old enough to be able to sit at the table for meals. I could possibly understand a bit of leeway if he was say having sandwiches/fruit etc for lunch but for something like porridge then him having it while running around everywhere is just causing problems and mess surely? What do his parents do with him - do they make him sit at the table?

Fire_Fox

What do the child's parents think? Grandparents should, wherever possible, be singing from the same hymn sheet as each other AND as the parents. And what did your children do? Assuming you have them together didn't you already iron this out?

valkirn

my 16 month old sits at the table with the rest of us to eat her meals (albeit in her high chair)

Though my mum was of the same ilk as your wife and though it was ok for children to run around whilst you ran after them trying to feed them, subsquently we stopped meal times at nanas untill we could get her to agree to sit her down.

Cat501

I think he should stay at the table, but I'm not at all keen on kids being told to stay till they clear their plate! I wouldn't like being forced to finish a meal if I was full so I wouldn't do it to a child! Added to that I do sometimes have a short break while I'm eating, say 5 minutes, until I feel ready to eat again. This would be more common in a restaurant where I wouldn't want the food to go to waste even if I was full.

To get him used to the idea of restaurant etiquette, perhaps could sit quietly at the table with a book/colouring in until everyone else is finished, if he can't just sit and talk during that time.

WLM21

podperson wrote: »

What do his parents do with him - do they make him sit at the table?

Sadly his mum (our daughter) has the same idea as my wife.

It puzzles me, because when she was a child, she sat at the table.

JodyBPM

Absolutely at the table, from the day they eat solids tbh.

At 3 I would expect them to ask "please may I get up" once finished rather than being expected to sit and wait for everyone else to finish, as at that age to sit still with nothing to do is torture.

Honestly, from weaning, mine ate at the table (highchair pushed up to table initially), at mealtimes, when everyone else is eating. If they got down/ran around then their dinner would be cleared away. They were not ever allowed to eat whilst running around.

Now at 6 & 7, they are both great eaters, and enjoy family mealtimes as a social occasion.