by Jeffrey A. Moore

Created on: October 24, 2008   Last Updated: March 28, 2010

Teaching your teenage child to set the table will vary from home to home and depend on how fancy you want the place settings to be. Most teens only need a bowl and a spoon for their skimpy appetites, but they, too, can learn how to set a proper table.

Most meals in today's society consist of a salad, bread or dinner rolls, soup, drinks, a main course followed by a desert and after beverages if desired. In other words, the standard place setting will consist of:

~ Dishes per seat at table

~ 1 dinner plate placed around two inches from the table's edge, centered with the chair.

~ 1 soup bowl centered on top of the dinner plate.

~ 1 Salad plate placed to the left of the dinner plate, above the forks.

~ 1 bread or dinner roll plate placed to the right of the dinner plate, above the salad plate.

As you can imagine, the table can become quite cluttered in a hurry. You might also have noticed that the desert dishes aren't even placed on the table yet. Space is very important for formal place settings. If you don't have the space, you might inquire if soup or salad is preferred and use only the one dish required for that and bring the desert dishes out after the main meal has been consumed.

Placing utensils in the order they will be used is common practice.

~ Utensils and glasses per seat at table (utensils placed on napkins).

~ A dinner fork and a salad fork are placed to the left of the dinner plate.

~ A steak knife, a butter knife, a dinner spoon, and a soup spoon placed to the right of the dinner plate. Knives are placed with their cut-edge in    toward the dinner plate.

~ Utensils are placed about a half inch to an inch from the dinner plate uniformly starting from their bottom edge.

~ A drinking glass is placed to the right of the dinner plate and above the knives. A coffee cup is optional and given out upon request. If coffee is requested place the drinking glass above the dinner plate and put the coffee cup above the knives.

You are probably wondering how you are supposed to get your teenage child to remember all that. The answer is simple. Make it a game. Teens will be teens and they definitely understand games. Race your child to see who can do it the fastest. You might add a little extra incentive. Tell them if they beat you they can get out of doing the dishes. That's a sure fire way to get them to learn. The downfall is if you lose. Come to think of it, this game works much better with more than one child.

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