Has there been some so-called expert on child-rearing saying that it's bad to make your kids say "Please" and "Thank you?"
Three times in as many days, I have heard children ordering their parents around, and the parents meekly did their bidding. What is up with that?!
Maybe the parents are just not thinking about the consequences of raising gormless, mannerless oafs? (Should that be "oaves?")
The age range of these kids was quite broad, but every single one of them was old enough to know better.
There is nothing sweeter to my ear than the sound of a tiny child, still in diapers, saying, "Pweeve," and "Ta Too." Parents on the job, and doing what they should.
Face it. Babies are born savages, totally self centered and oblivious of the rest of the world. The job of parenting extends beyond feeding, clothing and housing the next generation; it also includes socializing it. Kids have to learn where they end and the rest of the world begins.
In my not-so-humble opinion, good manners can help the inhabitants of this crowded earth rub along smoothly. I'm not talking about knowing which fork to use at a formal dinner...that sort of thing is easily learned when needed. I am talking about a general attitude that seeks the comfort of others rather than simply demanding their own; of "please," and "thank you," and "excuse me," and "may I help you with that?"
So how do we get there, when a boy of about eight can say, "Put some carrots on that" to his mother, and she up and does it!
I know it's easy to forget, particularly when the kids are small. At that time, it hasn't been long since Mom was trying to get the little guy to say what he wanted, rather than screaming and pointing, or banging his head on the floor. However, this is when it starts. Kids should be hearing their parents using good manners with each other, and to the children, as well. They should also be taught through the concept of consequences. If she doesn't say "please," your daughter should not get whatever she is wanting. She should be reminded to say "thank you" every time, in order to complete the transaction.
Parents who don't do this are not doing their jobs, and the world is less pleasant.
You are so right. It is exactly the same in Ireland and the UK. I don't know what has happened and why so many parents aren't teaching their children manners.
ReplyDeleteI had to bite my tongue!
ReplyDeleteI dont know if they sold Park's sausages where you were in the 1070's.
ReplyDeleteSpicy Enough. In the beginning, Parks and two employees started grinding out sausages in an old Baltimore dairy. Word quickly spread through the ghetto grapevine that the manufacturer was a black man, and Negroes supported him at the supermarket counters. At present, Parks sells mostly to white people, and about 15% of his employees are white. "I work very hard to run a business, and not a Negro business," says Parks, who has been elected to a second term as a city councilman from a Baltimore Negro district.
Parks believes that he will benefit from the tendency of people to "buy up, and buy out." By "up" he means higher quality, and by "out" foreign foods like Mexican and Chinese. Parks feels that his products are spicy enough to ride the fringes of the foreign trend. To insure their quality, the boss himself acts as an official taster. Recently he solved one executive problem by making a rather deft change. Parents and even schoolchildren had written in to complain about the company's shrill radio spot ads, in which a child cries, "More Parks Sausages, Mom!" That has since been modified to "More Parks Sausages, Mom—please!"
Here is the link. It's actually an interesting article about race back then too.
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,841592,00.html
thanks for the link, Melissa...I'll read it later.
ReplyDeleteLOL - And I am not a vampire, as you may have surmised I was talking about the 1970's, not 1070.
ReplyDelete