They haven't been at the top of my list for along time. We just had too much to look at first and it seemed like a battle that just needed to wait. Most of the girls picked up right away with very little prompting how to hold a fork, what size their bites should be, and what the napkin was for. My son seemed to have most of these down but slipped a bit more. They all still try to talk with food in their mouths but overall things were under control.
We have been working on ordering drinks and paying for themselves at the register. How to figure out if they have enough money. They are learning to cut their own food and then I noticed my son. He is so nasty at the table lately. Huge food globs falling out of his mouth, dripping sauce and drink all over himself, grabbing things with his hands and shoving it in his mouth, and leaning so far over the table that I saw him lick his plate last night. I almost fainted. What the heck is going on with him? He had shoved his fork into his fist and was shoveling food in when I asked him to stop and think about what he was doing. It was almost like he had glazed over and was on auto pilot. He barely slowed down.
I looked over and realized both Ruthie and Patches were doing similar things. Ruthie was correctable but Patches was lost when I asked her to sit up and slow down. Those three are usually covered in food after each meal and can be compared to Kiera, at times. At least the girls were holding the fork right and knew where their napkin was even though neither made any attempt to use it. We will be having a major manners course around here.
It made me wonder if this is another sign we need to monitor for both Patches and Michael. They are both struggling with their hygiene right now, too. We know that is a sign they will lose their grip very soon and their meds need to be adjusted to prevent any major incidents.
About Me
- Tudu
- Deep South, United States
- I am the mother of 10 children, 6 are part of a large sibling group we adopted through foster care in 2006, 2 are our grown foster daughters, 2 are from independent infant adoptions in 2001 and 2008. Every one of them have their own issues to work through from Schizo-Affective Disorder, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Complex PTSD, Reactive Attachment Disorder, Sensory Integration Dysfunction, ADHD, and Cerebral Palsy. Most of our children have been victims of sexual abuse by a close family member, most acted out sexually or exhibited predatory behaviors. We are currently trying to figure out where the trauma ends and mental illness begins in each of their lives.
4 comments:
I know you deal with so much more than I do, but I've discovered why my children have no table manners. Freckles and Bam Bam both are not able to make it through a meal without looking like their meal was smacked in the middle of their shirt and face. I always wondered why. Then I played much closer attention to the time schedule at school. I've come to discover that they have exactly 24 minutes (as a class) to make their way to the cafeteria, wait in the lunch line (even if they bring lunch), scarf their food, clean up, and be back in line to leave. It's rather rediculous at the length of the lunch line too (100+ kids at once). Because of how they have to walk in the hallways it can take over five minues to walk to the cafeteria. All of this seriously limits the amount of time they have to hoover vacuum their lunch. No time for tasting or chewing!
Additionally, Bam Bam and Kate neither one know how to use utensils (especially a knife) because the birthvessel only ran through drive-thru, or serves foods that you eat with your hands. :(
I, too, am teaching table manners 101 in our house!
Your poor kids. I wish I could blame the school. LOL They have plenty of time and complain they have to sit so long after eating. Their parents feed them mostly bread and macaroni so they used their hands. It's just after 3.5 years it has gotten worse with a few of them.
I am going to be honest here. I dread meal time. I really do. Nate has gotten so much better with his manners and Beth is not messy and uses her manners really well, so it's not about manners around here. This is going to sound so silly but Beth stares. I mean the girl can not, will not, whatever the case, just eat and tend to her business. She stares. She stares at other people's food. She stares at all of us. She takes FOREVER to eat and doesn't even look at her food to get a bite most of the time because she is staring. I know I sound like a little baby but I absolutely dread sitting down at the table with her. I timed her the other day and it took her 50 min. to eat a turkey sandwich.
So I guess if it's not one thing it's another.
ugh. As a toddler, Sissy was impossible to feed because she couldn't bear to have one tiny crumb on herself. now, at age 10 it turns my stomach to eat with her - seriously, pigs are neater! And I'm sure the RTC hasn't addressed any of that so it will be on the top of my to-do list when she comes home!
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