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Where Have All the Manners Gone?
What? Huh? Move! Gimme a …,
Hey can I …? Where oh where have all the manners
gone? What ever happened to: Pardon me? I’m sorry,
I didn’t hear you. Excuse me please. May I have?
Those phrases are almost extinct for children today.
You may still occasionally hear those words from adults
aged 40 and older, but pretty much not anyone younger.
How long has it been since families all ate around the
dinner table? Can you remember enjoying a meal when
the person speaking wasn’t interrupted? People
just knew not to phone during meal times; and if your
phone did ring, there was no getting up from the table
to answer the phone unless you thought it might be an
emergency. Of course, during that time of polite table
manners, Caller ID and answering machines weren’t
around, so the caller would just need to call back another
time. And shall we discuss long phone calls? You just
didn’t phone people after eight o’clock at
night, and certainly never past nine. It was just considered
rude.
Sure more and more families are single
parent homes and double income houses, and opportunities
to sit around the dinner table are few and far between;
but that’s no excuse not to instill good manners
in your children. Elbows off the table, napkin in your
lap, don’t talk with food in your mouth. Then there’s
no one starts eating until everyone is served, and blessings
are said in some cases. Now everyone sits down and starts
wolfing food down their mouths all the while reaching
over each other. “Please pass the salt” is
rarely heard anymore. And back in that day, no one dared
leave the table until everyone was done. If there was
something urgent which caused a family member the need
to leave the table early, the child always asked the
parent, “May I please be excused?” No one
says that anymore! Why not?
How many of you can remember growing
up saying, “Can I…” and before any more
words uttered past your lips, you were corrected to
say “May I.” May I go to…? May I have…
? “Of course you’re capable, you can, the
real question is do you have permission to, which is
MAY I?”
Manners are a lost art. Sadly if the
parents don’t use good manners, their children
certainly can’t be held responsible if they were
never taught, nor ever were led by example. It’s
never too late to start calling people Sir and Ma’am
or to use the magic words (that’s Please and Thank
you, for those who have forgotten!) If all else fails
and you just don’t know where to turn, start listening
to people over 40, many of them still use manners, or
trot to your local library and pick up a book. Heck,
just Google “Manners” and see what you come
up with!
1howto.com
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