Thursday, March 1, 2012

Miss Manners

I was raised with manners. With 4 young girls all within 8 years of each other my Mother could take us anywhere and we would NEVER act up, we were the most well behaved kids you had ever seen. The reason for this was our Mother taught us manners, respect and discipline.
She not only taught us these important things but enforced them daily. This is not to suggest that we grew up with no fun but we were expected to use our manners at all times.
This meant more than the common "please" and "thank you" but also the ever forgotten "May I", and "Pardon me."
I always say, "Manners are free but they're priceless" and I try my best to live my life by this motto!
It doesn't take much to be polite but it seems to be something that most have forgotten. So much so that when I find a polite person they almost seem to stand out from everyone else.
It's not easy to be polite in our "Me First" society and that's why I strive even more to be as well mannered as I can. We're all human and we make mistakes but a bit of effort goes a long way.
I am doing what I can to teach my children more than just manners but the value of manners, in English and Spanish and it's starting to pay off!
I often hear Carebear using her manners when asking for something and saying thank you when receiving it, and also saying "por favor" and "gracias" for her Spanish. We've started to get her to ask to be excused from the table and always ask before taking something from her brother and has to give him something new to play with in return!
There are so many cute examples but I'll only write a few. Today when I sneezed I heard this cute little voice from the other room say, "Bless you Mama!". Then later she wasn't looking where she was going and walked into me, her response was, "Sorry Mama." as she toddled away.
It makes my heart melt to hear little kids using their manners.

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