Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Saying Thanks

Are you teaching your kids to say thank you?

We started teaching Little Man to say thank you after he gets what he asks for. Ya know, please may I have "insert what I want here". Thank you for giving me "what I asked for". But that is not the thank you I am talking about.

I am always humbled by the people that will come up to Stephen when he is in uniform and offer a handshake. They usually always say "Thank you for serving our country" or some variation of. It is USUALLY older men. Ones who probably served our country during wartime also.

Have you said thank you to people that do things? I personally think a lot of jobs would suck to do. Especially in the summer. It is technically "spring" here, but it was in the 90's yesterday. Yeah, that's not spring!

Could you imagine being a mailman in the summer? No air in those trucks! How about a garbage man? I am sure trash stinks even more in the heat! Firefighters, soldiers, police men, the exterminator... I could go on, but I think you get the point.

Little Man and I are going to start saying "THANK YOU!!" to these people that do these jobs.

We started today. The mailman was our first. We made him a card and put it in the mailbox with a Coke in an icepack. We usually don't have Coke here, so next time it will probably be a bottle of water for him. And maybe some homemade cookies!

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It is not just about saying thank you to these people. It is about teaching children to be respectful. Too many children today are thankless, selfish, spoiled little brats. Yes, my child can be this way too, but I believe it is a learned behavior. If we teach them to say thank you to everyone in their lives, maybe just maybe we can make the world a better place.

The mailman came when Little Man was napping. I had fun watching the surprise on his face when he opened the mailbox and reached for the mail. I know its not everyday someone says thanks to him! I watched him read the card open the freezer bag with the Coke in it. He fumbled around in his truck for a minute then put our mail in our box and went about his day. I went out to get the mail and I found something I was not expecting. The mailman even left US a thank you!

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His mama musta taught him well!



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2 comments:

TeamOSM said...

Oh, what a wonderful thing you guys did! I bet your mailman really appreciated it. =) You are giving me great ideas for when my tot is a little older. =)

Meghan said...

I think I'll have JaMonkey do this since Thursdays are my days off!