It happened again yesterday. I was picking up Briggs from day care. It was the first time I had been there in quite a while, and I had not met one of the teachers this year. She asked, "Are you his grandfather?" I've gotten accustomed to being asked that as I've gotten fatter and grayer. But what really ate at me was the turn around in manners. I wish she had led off with something along the lines of, "I'm Kelly, Briggs' teacher. How are you you this afternoon?" Much nicer, and she would have gotten the information she wanted (without the growl) when I would have responded, "It's a pleasure to meet you; I'm Briggs' dad." People do it on the phone all the time, too. Especially galling are the telemarketers who open with, "Hey, Mike; how are you this evening?" Click.
Learn some manners, people!
I work on manners constantly with the children. Eli is about to learn that if doesn't pipe up with a polite response to someone, when I'm around, he's going to be embarrassed when I answer for him. Briggs and I dropped in on an impromptu fire station show and tell yesterday evening. I made him say that you to everyone in uniform as we left, for the kindness they had shown him in walking him around the equipment. We know that manners begin at home. Folks report the the older boys are polite when we are not around, but we remain vigilant about these sorts of things. I've even tried it with my young piano students; some teasing about their lack of response to a greeting from me let's them know what's expected. Even the most demur are more responsive and conversant in very little time.
A "private caller" who happened to be a church member caught the brunt of my built up aggravation with the notion of failing manners in society last night at bedtime. I had given him a pretty good growl before I asked him to identify himself again. Yikes!
We all can improve on our manners; and ask forgiveness when we err.
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