Okay this is probably gonna sound like a rant from an old man but I don't care. lol.
Yesterday I picked up my niece from school and her teacher came over to talk to me. She started talking about her grades and how well she's doing and all that stuff and then she said, "And it's so nice to see a child that respects their elders and says 'Thank you' and 'Please'." I just kinda nodded and we left for home but I was kinda taken aback by what she said. I wasn't aware that so many kids these days lacked manners. I've been to her school several times before but I never really noticed the actions of the other kids. But I did start to pay closer attention last night when I went out shopping for Halloween stuff and later on at the party/haunted house. I was behind this woman at the grocery store with two kids, about eight and six, who were running around grabbing things and screaming. One of them knocked the bag that the lady was filling up off the side of the checkstand and cans flew everywhere. The lady picked them all up as the mom just watched and didn't say a thing to the kids. Then as they were leaving, she told the kids to say thank you to the woman who had done the bagging and they both screamed "No!" and took off out the doors. It was embarrassing to just about everyone in the store. And I'm pretty sure her kids get away with that crap all the time, judging by the way she handled this incident.
At the party, things seemed much better. About 99% of the kids that came and went were polite and said 'Please' and 'Thank you' and everybody had a great time. I don't know if manners just aren't valued the same way anymore in this society or what, but in my family it's not an option of whether or not you WANT to be polite or respectful. That's just the way it is. I remember even as I got to high school, and as I started working, I would get a lot of compliments on being polite and saying "Sir" and "Ma'am". I've never known it any other way. But apparently that isn't the norm with all families, which, yeah, I get that my family is not normal. lol. If you've met them, then you know. But my kid is gonna have manners, and I would hope they pass that on to their kids as well.
