Teaching manners to young kids
Post written by: beagooddad
I have a new thing that drives me crazy and, unfortunately, it is something I do myself.
How often have you had this conversation after doing something nice.
Other person: Thank you.
You: No problem.
Where did this stupid exchange come from. Do we really mean to say that we only did the nice thing because it happened to not inconvenience us? We’re talking about holding doors open and picking up dropped items for a parent holding a kid.
I literally feel that I should apologize immediately upon saying it.
Can’t we go back to this old fashioned conversation?
Other person: Thank you.
You: You’re welcome. Some weather we’re having today, isn’t it?
Are we able to be nice just because it is a nice thing to do? Can I hold a door open because it creates good karma and not because I didn’t have anything better to do?
I need to start working on myself before my kids pick up this annoying phrase, too. Lisa over at Parenting Toddlers got me thinking about this today with her post about how to handle compliments.
November 20th, 2006 at 10:14 am
Ye gods!
“No problem” kills me. My parents drove it out of my vocabulary, and I cringe every time I hear it.
Let’s all say it together: “You’re welcome.”
Not so hard, is it? Once you’ve worked it into your vocabulary, come back and thanks Mike. I’m sure he’ll say, “No prob- er, you’re welcome.”
November 20th, 2006 at 10:39 am
Lil’ Duck already says or is prompted to say (if he forgets) “thank you, you’re welcome, sorry, please” etc etc. Hopefully the next generation can be polite too, eh?? Thanks for the link!
November 22nd, 2006 at 2:04 pm
Glad to hear I’m not the only person who doesn’t like “No problem.”
I wrote a post a while back about teaching the kids some sign language when they were pretty young. Either me or one of the commenters mentioned teaching their one-year old the signs for “Please” and “Thank You.” Somebody else in the comments went berserk over teaching such young kids such concepts.
I thought it was strange that anybody would be opposed to please and thank you. Now I know he is a “No problem” kind of guy.