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Original poster

DO YOU LET YOUR CHILDREN get down from the table before everyone has finished?

37 replies

morningpaper · 17/04/2007 20:25

Do you let your children get down from the table before everyone has finished?

Surely only savages do this?

OP posts:
Dottydot · 17/04/2007 20:27

Yes!!! I Don't Care either. They eat at the speed of light when they choose to eat, so they finish first and can go and watch Cbeebies while dp and I have 5 minutes peace and chat. Perfect. Or they don't eat at all, leave straight away and we get about 8 minutes.

We make them say the "please may I leave the table?" thing.

Can't see what's wrong with that myself!

oliveoil · 17/04/2007 20:28

I don't let them

but they do

are 4 and 2 so I presume I have time to civilise them?

Dottydot · 17/04/2007 20:28

The only time they can't leave is when we have Guests. But they know that - they have to be extra good and chat to Grandma/Daddy/various aunts and uncles...

WendyWeber · 17/04/2007 20:28

My house is full of savages

I blame the parents

sassy · 17/04/2007 20:29

Yes, the 2 year old is allowed to leave her seat and sit on someone's knee. (all hell breaks loose otherwise). The 4yo is expected to ask permission to leave - she is often last to finish but if we have friends over and are lingering at table she is allowed to go and play.

Are we savage?(Chants of 'Kill The PIg!Slash His Throat!' echo chez sassy...)

Furball · 17/04/2007 20:29

ds (5) is such a slow eater it's usually us waiting for him

J20BABYLOVESCHOCOLATEEGGS · 17/04/2007 20:29

nah, we don't have a table, my dd eats sat on the floor in the living room, watching tv, drinking her fruit shoot

Brangelina · 17/04/2007 20:29

Yes I do, DD's only a toddler and gets bored after a while and is unbearable. As long as she's eaten most of what she's supposed to and asked vaguely (she's only 20mo) then she can get down and play. that way DP and I don't have to rush our meal to keep up.

When she's older she'll probably be expected to sit for longer but now is not the time to insist IMO.

Hulababy · 17/04/2007 20:31

For normal meals together then no, DD stays at the table with me and DH. We chat and eat. We don't linger at the table though and leave the table once the meal is over.

Obviously if eating out, she stays at the table with us. If at a friends, depends on what the rules are there.

If it is mainly a grown up meal or extended meal, then DD (and any other children here) can leave once they have properly finished their meal - but they have to go and play elsewhere, not near the dining table! DD will ask to leave the table if this is the case.

BarefootDancer · 17/04/2007 20:31

Sometimes I get down first if there's something good on telly and they are eating that yoghurt at the speed of a comatose snail.

KnayedFrot · 17/04/2007 20:35

Yes, DS is allowed to get down when he has finished. Usually he doesn;t finish before us but at 3.1 i think it's unreasonable to make him stay, especially when at tea-time he knows he only has about 10 more minutes playing time before his bath.

At least he comes to the table in the first place (usually) and eats (usually)!

Will proabbly start doing the please may I get down thing soon.

FrannyandZooey · 17/04/2007 20:37

Ds is a slow eater

we get down and leave him to it

(sorry but life is too short to be sitting around looking at a 4 y o slowly munching broccoli or whatever 3 times a day)

wheresthehamster · 17/04/2007 20:42

Of course, this isn't the 1950's you know.

dumbymummy · 17/04/2007 20:42

Then I'm a savage, morningpaper. I'm a stickler for manners, but I do find this whole debate about eating at the table a bit outdated. Kids know when they have to do it - but making them do it in their own home to prove some spurious point seems a little harsh. Children are not made to sit at table watching adults eat (and conspire in adult conversations). They're made to play!

AitchTwoOh · 17/04/2007 20:45

broccoli 3 times a day. [rolls eyes] does he even have time to eat lentils?

FrannyandZooey · 17/04/2007 20:49

or whatever Aitch

do please pay attention

Dottydot · 17/04/2007 20:51

I was going to do a at F&Z's mention of her ds eating broccoli, until I remembered that ds2 was chomping through tons of the stuff at tea time today. I have to try not to screw up my face in an 'ewwww' sort of way when he's eating it!

FrannyandZooey · 17/04/2007 20:53

Well I need to get my smug kicks where I can

he did a poo today without telling me, tried to wipe his own bottom (with limited success), took off his pants and trousers and hid under his bedclothes and refused to come out without a lot of shouting

this was in front of my 2 best mates and all their offspring

so if I want to boast about his vegetable eating I ruddy will, ok?

AitchTwoOh · 17/04/2007 20:54

what's on the whatever list? creme eggs? i think not. poor boy...

Dottydot · 17/04/2007 20:55

Absolutely. (pours F&Z a stiff drink). Why do they always choose the times when other grown ups are around to be little gits..?

Original poster
morningpaper · 17/04/2007 20:55

If you just fed him chocolate like the rest of us then you would have plenty of warning from all teh grunting noise that a poo was on its way

swings and roundabouts

p.s. No one gets down from MY table before we've all finished

OP posts:
AitchTwoOh · 17/04/2007 20:55

oh dear, dd is prone to a bit of a Barlinnie-style dirty protest herself... [sympathetic]

AitchTwoOh · 17/04/2007 20:56

also pmsl at smug kicks. the polar opposite of teenage kicks.

dumbymummy · 17/04/2007 21:00

Like I said, MP. Then I'm a savage.
Fuck it!

FrannyandZooey · 17/04/2007 21:01

LOL he had (I think) a Mars mini egg at Easter? He won it in an egg and spoon race. He gave me half

Yes you are quite right MP the brocolli has led directly to the pooing thing

but he has always been a great pooer, in fact G + T at pooing I would suggest