soontobemommy

I was wondering what you guys think of this situation. I was at a party last week and the hostesses 7 year old little sister was there. At one point I was sitting with the little girl, her father and some other adults and was talking to someone when I felt a nudge from the child's father. He shushed me so I could listen to a story that his little girl was telling. I said "oh sorry" and listened to the little girl. Now I am not a parent (I'm pregnant so that will change soon!) but I do have some ideas about child etiquette. While I don't think that children should be seen and not heard, I also don't think that it's polite for parents to expect people to make their children the center of attention. I teach private music lessons so I am around other people's children all the time. I notice that a lot of parents allow their children to interrupt when I am trying to talk to them after a lesson. I don't want to be offensive but sometimes I want to tell them to put a lid on it! Am I being unreasonable?

HappyMomma

While I believe that children should have a right and a turn to talk, I also believe that they should be taught to not interrupt when someone is talking.

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1dayatatime

We have been working on not interupting for what seems like forever. We ask DD to say excuse me and wait patiently until it's her turn to talk.

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fallon

exactly

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fallon

it takes some time and a lot of reminding...my daughter is usually very good about unless I'm on the phone . Once the learn to say "excuse me" first it takes a while to teach them to actually wait after that...lol

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Sirk

I've had grownups completely ignore or interrupt my kid when she's talking. I guess I don't have a problem correcting them if it happens more than once. Lita looks so hurt and frustrated when it happens.
If the person was talking to someone else, I don't understand why they said anything.

I wish I knew a way to get my kids to quit interupting when I'm on the phone. I think it's just the age.

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fallon

I don't allow people to interupt my child when she's talking...but I'm kind of a witch that way...lol. I figure I can't teach her it isn't nice to interupt someone else if I allow people to do it her. I think she deserves just as much respect in that area as an adult, unless there is an emergancy

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Dadu2004

We try to teach Delaney to be cognisant of when people are talking and take her turn. I think in general kids want to be the center of attention and say what they want to say when they want to say it. And generally, adults see children as more of a distraction (and less important) and will just ignore the fact that their talking. It will take a mindset change for adults and proper behavior for children to correct the problem.

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mom2many

If the little girl had been interuppting multiple times then I could see some frustration. But if it only happened once or twice then I really don't see a big deal. Little kids tend to foget what they are going to say if they don't get it out "now", and really you can't expect them to hold on for more then a minute or two anyways. Child etiquett sounds nice but lets face it, they are still learning, so to expect any child to wait every time an adult is talking is unrealistic. Cause adults are almost always talking, and then the poor child would spend most of it's life waiting.

Although having an uninteruppted phone conversation every once and a while would be nice!

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Jennifer, mom to some wonderful kids!

Xero

My mom never allowed us or any of my siblings to interrupt. We were all taught to say excuse me and wait as long as it takes for her to be ready to listen to us. I think she'd go crazy with as many kids as she has plus a life otherwise if we didn't do that. If we did interrupt or more than once at least, we'd get in trouble. She really hates it. I pretty much agree, and would teach my son to say excuse me and wait.

But I would NOT appreciate any adult not giving my son a chance to talk, like he doesn't matter or something. So it depends.

mom2many is right about kids forgetting what they have to say though, I think that's why kids have such trouble waiting to say something. They interrupt because if they don't get it out now it might not come out lol. And that is frustrating. So it's really hard to say.

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