The Polite Police

Alright people, its time to get a little deep, just give me this one, k?  Before I begin, obviously I have only been a mother for a little over 2 years, so obviously I am not an expert, this theory is just based on some simple observations, so here it goes...

Have you noticed that children's respect for adults has been in such a great decline lately that the please's, thank you's and the whatnot's have kind of gone out the door with some kids?  Well Ryan and I decided early on that wasn't going to happen with our kids. We will be respected.  They will be polite.  End of story.  So as soon as Harper could talk, she's been forced to say please, then we added on thank you, at times, its been a battle.

Well this morning, Harper needed help, she said please, I helped her, then I said "what do you say?".  She responded with "please", I said, "No, Thank you" and she said "You're Welcome, Mom".  (We will just skip over the fact that she completely missed the point that I wanted her to say thank you, shall we?)  I told Ryan and we were shocked because we never taught her you're welcome.  Then I realized she must have learned it from me, because I always respond to her "Thank You's" with "You're Welcome". 

So here comes my theory... perhaps the lack of politeness in our children is because there is a lack of politeness coming from ourselves.  Kids, especially at this age, learn mostly from their parents.  So instead of just ignoring Harper's tantrums until she calms down enough to say please, she also needs to see Ryan and I be polite to her, each other, and everyone around us.  Which I think we forget to do a lot of the time, and she will pick up on being polite much quicker if she sees us doing it as well.  Sounds pretty simple huh?

Well, that is it, that's my deep thought for the day, please don't forget that politeness does count, especially when it comes to our kids!  In the spirit of this blog, I'd like to say thank you so much for reading this, I'm so glad we have so many amazing friends to share our lives with. 



And because no blog is complete without pictures of my children... please feel free to gaze upon these random photos of the girls with their uncles who they got to meet for the first time when we were in the midwest...

Yes, my child is filthy, they were playing in dirt.