My dear old mum did get mentioned on here quite a bit before she passed away recently. One of the bits of advice I’ve been told many times in the last week is to keep her memory alive . So just like Dad, who is doing this by talking to her photo, I shall continue to waffle on about her in things like ‘My Mother Told Me’ posts. The stuff our mothers tell us is invaluable advice and info you don’t get anywhere else.
Floating around on the old Internet is a post about a shop assistant at a supermarket who refused to serve a customer till the customer stopped their mobile conversation. The post is a few years old and is here if you want to read it.
As a part-time shop assistant, I can relate to this. We get people in all the time who carry on their phone conversations as if the shop assistant, me, isn’t even there. They hand over their money, accept their change and if your really lucky you may get a small nod of acknowledgement at the very end. I don’t know if it’s just the technology life where all living now that has brought this on or if as parents we are somewhat failing at teaching our children manners beyond please and thank you.
We teach our children to say please and thank you but how much further do we go and should we be doing? There are sharing toys, taking turns and probably a few more than I can’t think of off the top of my head. In olden days way before even my mother was thought of it was about taking hats off inside or when a funeral car drove past, oh and you never overtake a funeral car either. If a lady left the dining table, all the gentlemen stood up.
Techno life is forever changing, progressing and developing. It effects not only how we do things but also how we behave. For example, when we could only get emails at the office or home computer it sort of kept the email world in one place. Then we could get them on the move on our phones. As this technology developed it didn’t come with rules or guides like it is rude to read your email at the checkout at the supermarket. There are new unsaid rules and manners we have to learn, once we figure them out that is.
When my mother was bringing me up she told me that in life she may not be able to afford to give me the best of everything, didn’t have a lavish lifestyle herself and didn’t have degrees coming out her ears but if you have manners you will be richer than the rich or clever people in life. ( obviously she nor I don’t mean rich or clever people don’t have manners, you get what I mean)
Manners are important. Manners don’t cost anything. They can make a massive difference to how other people respond to you. As the modern techno world drags us to more and more exciting and sometimes scary things, it’s up to us as parents to work out the ‘new’ manners. Its up to us to equip our children with these free extras that can make such a difference. And to also check our own manners are up to scratch.
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