A child holds an active place in the home. Making others feel welcomed is a great responsibility to encourage!
We regularly have company over in my home. I didn’t realize how much of an impact that made on my children until my daughter invited guests over for lunch after worship one Sunday. Without checking with me first!
Teaching children how to welcome others in to your home is one of the greatest gifts you can give them. Here are practical ways you can model and teach hospitality to your children.
How Do I Practice Hospitality?
Hospitality is the friendly treatment of guests and strangers. We often think of hospitality as what we practice in our own homes, but in reality, we can attempt to make someone feel welcome no matter where they are.
If you see someone struggling in a restaurant, lend a helping hand! If you see someone struggling to reach the top shelf in a grocery store, ask if you can assist them. These are both ways we can extend hospitality when we are out and about.
When we are home, our children won’t have an opportunity to help with hospitality if we ourselves are not hospitable.
I know that I practice hospitality because I make an effort to do so. I’m constantly inviting others over for coffee, a meal, or a playdate.
But what’s more than that – I want them in my home. While I go through seasons (like postpartum) where I limit guests, I make an overall effort to open up my home and take an interest in the lives of others. My ultimate hope is that I’m modeling good habits for my children.
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Photo by Isaac Quesada via Unsplash.
Encourage Young Children to Get Involved
Whether you are new to the practice of hospitality or you have lived it your entire life, get your children involved!
When the whole family practices a spirit of hospitality, children will struggle very little with picking up hospitality cues. And there are so many lessons they can learn from hosting others in their own home.
If you practice Biblical hospitality, they will learn sacrifice, serving others, meeting a need, and being their for a friend. What an incredible foundation they can grow when hospitality is simply a part of family life!
1. Keep an Open Door Policy for Family and Friends
Notice I didn’t stop at “open door policy.”
In this day and age, we have to acknowledge that there are strangers and a healthy level of skepticism is good to have. Not everyone has our best interests at heart!
But when it comes to friends and family, we can encourage our children to be welcoming and polite always. You can model this by having others in your home often. And it doesn’t have to be a meal! Have friends over for coffee or a playdate.
As your children get older, say yes to inviting friends over. Especially if it’s the child’s idea.
2. Prepare a Guest Room
A child can easily fluff a pillow or lay a stack of towels on a bed. So let them!
If you’re having overnight guests, let your child help select snacks or comfort items for your guests.
Related Blog Post: Tips for Hosting Overnight Guests
3. Model a Polite Phone Call
Positively engaging with strangers is a great skill to have. You can model this to your children when you schedule an appointment or answer an unknown number.
4. Encourage Play Time with Other Children
Social skills develop over a wide variety of ages, but playdates are a great way to practice simple social interactions. Think of things like sharing, conflict management, taking turns, and simply saying hello.
5. Invite New People Over Often
Hospitality is a practiced skill. You won’t strengthen that muscle if you don’t use it!
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6. Place the Needs of Others First
In our church, we are able to help others often. When a mother has a baby or someone injures themselves, we try to sign up for the meal train. I usually have my kids in tow as I deliver the meal.
That’s a great way to show children others need our help and we can bless them by helping them.
7. Create an Inclusive Dining Experience
Now that my home isn’t littered with high chairs and bibs, I can breathe easy and be thankful my kiddos can clean up after themselves!
But because I want to keep the needs of others at top of mind, I keep a few bibs and small spoons on hand for guests younger than my children.
Creating a diet-friendly menu is another way to accommodate guests.
Washing bibs, wiping down the table, clearing the plates of young guests, and swapping out a chair for a highchair are all things small children can do. Get them involved!
8. Include Children in Thank You Cards and Gifts
When you send a thank you card, have your children sign it. If you are buying a gift for someone, let your children in on the decision making process.
Are you starting to see a theme here? Get your children involved!
9. Sign Up to be Church Greeters
Opening the door to your home is just the first step in hospitality. Talking with someone and making them feel comfortable is the goal!
Encourage your children to practice these skills by being a greeter at church. This is a great way to encourage eye contact and a firm handshake. This is also a great way to model conversation etiquette for your children.
10. Make Friendly Conversation with Strangers
When you are standing in the check out line or talking with a waitress, you can model hospitality to your children.
Using your manners, offering advice to someone struggling, or simply saying, “How is your day?” are all ways you can model this for your children.
11. Ask Children to Help Create a Menu
Children love to have a sense of ownership. Why not get them involved in a meal?
If we are hosting a guest with food allergies, I may create an additional side dish or dessert that caters to that food allergy. But the original desert or side dish may be my child’s idea.
If you want to take it one step further, have your child help prepare the meal! This is a great opportunity to talk about your company and practice cleanliness, like washing hands, wearing an apron, and cleaning up after yourself.
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Photo by Libby Oconnor via Unsplash.
12. Have Children Set the Table (and Don’t Correct Anything)
My daughter loves to set the table. So when we have company coming, I let her set the table. And I don’t correct anything!
If I want to foster a heart of hospitality in my children, that means accepting that children will do things the way children do them. Sometimes that’s sloppy, disorderly, or just for fun.
In our house, it doesn’t matter how you do things. It matters that those things get done. So when my children feed the dog, put away toys, or make their beds, I’m not a stickler for toys being put in a certain spot or pillows being fluffed just right. Because I don’t want my children to do things the way I do them. I just want them to perform the task at hand.
When we allow our children to be involved in hospitality, I feel like the same principle applies. There will be a degree of difference. And that needs to be okay.
Our children aren’t us. They aren’t thinking of a glass being perfectly polished or a napkin sitting just so. Those are both things we can teach them, or we can simply let them help and let the technical details sort themselves out as our children get older.
13. Encourage Children to Eat After Guests Have Made Their Plates
I am a stickler on table manners. But one table manner that I think has been lost is serving guests first.
While this may not be practical, especially with small children and toddlers, it is something I encourage my children to adhere to. There is a level of respect that comes with sharing your home with a visitor. And when we expect our children to extend that respect, it drives home the point visitors take a priority in our lives.
14. Encourage Children to Ask Questions
You may be thinking, “Sierra. My children ask 500 questions. Why would I have them pepper my guests with questions?!”
That’s not what I mean.
Before guests come, you can give your children a small introduction about your guests. Who they are, how you know them, and what they do for a living are all basic things you can share with your children.
If your children aren’t familiar with what they do for a living, instead of just telling them, you could encourage them to ask your guest. I think you will find this could lead to good conversation, particularly from your guest.
This also gets your child invested in the lives of others. What a great starting point to hospitality!
Life Lessons from the Dinner Table
When we bring children through our life, there is so much they can learn! And while they are big life lessons, they can be taught in simple ways.
If you are looking for more simple things you can incorporate into your homemaking, be sure to check out my homemaking tab! For even more homemaking inspiration, follow me on Pinterest!
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