the meat
is cut up and the vegetables "fixed" in the pantry, and brought to the
children before other people at the table are served. Not only because it
is hard for them to be made to wait, and have their attention attracted by
food not for them, but because they take so long to eat. As soon as they
are old enough to eat everything on the table, they are served, not last,
but in the regular rotation at table in which they come.

=TABLE TRICKS THAT MUST BE CORRECTED=

To sit up straight and keep their hands in their laps when not occupied
with eating, is very hard for a child, but should be insisted upon in
order to prevent a careless attitude that all too readily degenerates into
flopping this way and that, and into fingering whatever is in reach. He
must not be allowed to warm his hands on his plate, or drum on the table,
or screw his napkin into a rope or make marks on the tablecloth. If he
shows talent as an artist, give him pencils or modeling wax in his
playroom, but do not let him bite his slice of bread into the silhouette
of an animal, or model figures in soft bread at the table. And do not
allow him to construct a tent out of two forks, or an automobile chassis
out of tumblers and knives. Food and table implements are not playthings,
nor is the dining-room a playground.

=TALKING AT TABLE=

When older people are present at table and a child wants to say something,
he must be taught to stop eating momentarily and look at his mother, who
at the first pause in the conversation will say, "What is it, dear?" And
the child then has his say. If he wants merely to launch forth on a long
subject of his own conversation, his mother says, "Not now, darling, we
will talk about that by and by," or "Don't you see that mother is talking
to Aunt Mary?"

When children are at table alone with their mother, they should not only
be allowed to talk but unconsciously trained in table conversation as well
as in table manners. Children are all more or less little monkeys in that
they imitate everything they see. If their mother treats them exactly as
she does her visitors they in turn play "visitor" to perfection. Nothing
hurts the feelings of children more than not being allowed to behave like
grown persons when they think they are able. To be helped, to be fed, to
have their food cut up, all have a stultifying effect upon their
development as soon as they have become expert enough to attempt these
services for themselves.