Please Use Your Manners Thank You

Had an absolutely fantastic start to our weekend. Daddy was off & we got to enjoy the girls Gymboree classes. In Aidann's class they were learning about baseball. They got to use their pretend tickets to get into the "stadium", find their seat in the "stands", eat their pretend hot dogs & pizza, run drills, & then play a game. My daughter scored a home run (I almost typed "touchdown" lol). In Asher's lass they were working on identifying circles through various activities. SO FUN! After class, we went to the mall for awhile & then stopped to get Aidann some special ice cream (Birthday cake ice creak to be exact). She had reached "get an ice cream" on her potty sticker chart. Aidann was over the top excited when we handed her her very own ice cream cup. She started gulping it down immediately & then mid gulp she just stopped, "I want to share with, Sissy". You tell your kids to share, but nothing tops the times when all the work you have put in finally hits home & pays off & they apply it all on their own. She then proceed to share her special ice cream with all of us.Manners are so important, but very rare to come across these days in the younger generations. My personal opinion is that it is never too early to start teaching manners & of course modeling them for your children. From birth if someone says to my baby "You are so cute", I tell them, "Say THANK YOU". As I feed them their baby food I try to tell them, "Say please" "Say thank you". Obviously, it would be some freaky stuff if your 6 month old really did bust out with a "Thank you", but overtime the use of manners will just become 2nd nature to them.Lil' kids definitely start out with a lil' issue with applying patience. Recently, we started teaching Aidann how she needs to say "Excuse me" when she has something she would like to say instead of just interrupting. It was very tough for her to actually grasp the concept that "Excuse me" doesn't just give you an automatic pass to talk after, but rather you wait until you are acknowledged before you can speak. "I apologize" is also something she has finally just gotten a grasp on. When she makes a bad choice, she automatically says it from the heart without being asked.Its so awesome when you have more than 1 child & as the older 1 starts to grasp & incorporate different things into their life (The good things of course), it starts to rub off on the younger ones. I don't understand how some parents feel they really messed up with the older ones, are pregnant, & automatically say "With this 1 it is going to be different". I understand their hearts, but don't you think you need to try to work on correcting things in the oldest ones also. They deserve better too. Its not too late. Will it be a lil' harder? Probably, but still worth the extra effort. The younger ones are going to tend to mimic the older ones, not the older ones changing to be more like the younger ones. If we thought parenting was going to be easy, we signed up for the wrong job. Its a constant learning experience that requires constant examination & revision. Luckily, we are not in this alone!So, the next time your out in public & some kid just pushes their way past you without any regard, instead of accidentally putting your foot out to trip them like you want to, be grateful you are teaching your kids to be better.-M&M Momma