My husband wants our girls to learn to speak Chinese because he thinks it will give them a natural advantage in life. Well, that's exactly how I feel about teaching them manners. I believe that if my children learn good manners and proper social skills, they will have an easier time navigating this crazy world. Because here's what I'm realizing as I operate in my current universe of preschool play dates, birthday parties, and family dinners: it's not easy to teach kids manners and I'm not doing a very good job. And most of my friends aren't doing a very good job either.
Now, in my defense, my kids are little (5, 3, and 1years old). While I don't expect my baby's first word to be "please" (I'm really pushing for "mama"!), I do think I've been coasting for too long on the theory that my girls are young and they'll be more polite when they grow up. It's hard to know how much I should realistically expect of kids this age. It's much easier to excuse their lack of eye contact or inability to remember to say please on their youth. Well, I'm done with that line of thinking. I'm raising the bar, girls!
Any tips would be much appreciated as I start this journey. Because first up, I'm tackling table manners. Dinner, in particular. The biggest, meanest, most frustrating part of my day. Stay tuned and wish me luck!
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