Mind your manners

How many times did you hear that as a child? Mind your manners. And it didn't just come from your parents. It came from teachers and people at church and even ladies in the grocery store. We used to live in a world where it was acceptable for people to tell your children to mind their manners. These days, you would probably open up a can of something strong if you heard a stranger talking to your kid that way. Unfortunately, we live in a world where it's become acceptable to have no manners. To be rude and to say "What?" when someone calls your name instead of "Yes, mom." Yeah, not even Yes ma'am. God forbid any child said ma'am and sir above the Mason Dixon line anymore! But here's the thing - what do you say to your child when they are confront with an adult who doesn't have manners. It's one thing when your child has friends who are impolite, but what do you do when it's a grown-up displaying that negative behavior. Last week, a woman told my daughter that something she was doing was "annoying". Of course, if you know me, you know my first instinct was to give that woman a piece of my mind. But I didn't. But, I also didn't want my daughter to think that I wasn't sticking up for her and that, by ignoring the comment, I was making it okay. So, I had to take my 9-year-old aside and explain to her that sometimes even adults say rude things but that it would be showing bad manners to point out her bad manners. Now, I don't mean to get all Emily Post about it, but I am trying to use the teachable moment to show my girls that everyone in life isn't always polite. One day, we were at an arcade and there were three women watching a girl playing a video game. When the girl moved away, my daughter started toward the game, but the women circled around it and put money in. I said "Oh". Seriously, I swear that's all I said and do you know one of those ladies (and I use the term very loosely) turned and said "Yeah, we were waiting just as long as anyone else." That's fine. That's okay. It's not a big deal. You were waiting and you, as an adult, deserve the right to play a video game in an arcade while there are children waiting for you. But then "ladies" did you need to each play two games so that the kids on line basically had to wait six turns for you to finish? You can imagine what I wanted to say to those trolls. One turned around and say "Oh, honey, thanks for being so patient." Really? Don't talk to my kid. Don't make my life as a parent harder. Hmm. So it's okay to be a nasty person as long as I smile about it and give you some phony words of sympathy? Ick. I hope you felt good about yourself when you won 10 tickets out of the machine and were able to get yourself a stale tootsie roll from the prize box. But, as much as I wanted to tell those women to shove their game tokens where the sun doesn't shine, I had to remember that my daughter was watching me. And what I do is what she will probably do in a similar situation. Kids are always watching. So, mind your manners.