Monday, February 13, 2012

Princess manners

Our friends live two blocks away from us, so when they invited us over for a get-together we responded with an enthusiastic yes.

Generally, I talk about our expectations when we leave the house: what’s going to happen when we get there, what we’ll be doing before and after, and the behavior I expect to see at said function.

I used to talk about “Restaurant Manners” with Anika. Then I'd would implement Restaurant Manners at home. That worked for a little while, but what’s really stuck was teaching “Princess Manners.” She loves to “play” royalty, so I followed their lead.

On our walk to our friend’s house, I told her that I would insist on her best Princess Manners. Then I asked her for examples of Princess Manners.

“Hmmmm….. I can say, ‘ Will you be my friend?’”

Not a bad start. I requested some more examples. 

“ I can say 'please' and 'thank you' and 'may I ' and …”


I was glowing at her responses, until ...

“ ... and I can say ‘I’m sorry I kicked you in the leg.’”

My glow came to a screeching halt. While it’s nice to apologize, even when it's an accident, I asked her if we could agree NOT kick anyone in the leg at the party. She smiled, shrugged her shoulders, said OK, and skipped off down the block to our friend's house.

While we were there, I am proud to say I heard some May I's and Pleases and Thank Yous and even a Bless You after the host sneezed. I'm also proud to report no one got kicked in the leg.
 

NOTE: I like to keep organized, so I'm reposting my blogs in one spot. This one originally ran on May 28, 2009.

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