Teach your children Good Manners

It is important for children to learn manners. Having good manners means behaving in a way that is socially acceptable. Good manners show respect to those you meet or interact with and gain their respect. It helps your child to have better relationships with everyone, such as family, friends or even strangers. Teaching good manners to children will raise them to be respected in the society.

We all want our children to be well mannered. It is important to start early, so manners become something that your child does automatically. However, it will not happen overnight, and you need to take it slowly. To make your child develop good manners you would have to familiarize them with the basic etiquettes explained below.

Courtesy

Courtesy is being polite and respectful towards others. It is best learned by modelling. Involve ‘Please’, ‘Thank you’ and ‘Sorry’ in your conversation with your child or your spouse, ask your children to do the same. Introduce one social skill a month, for example, teach your children to say “hello” whenever they meet a person and reward them when they follow. Children do not necessarily understands the meaning and importance of the words like ‘Please’ and ‘Thank you’, but you can start by prompting them by saying “what do we say when we get a gift?” or “what do we say when we hurt someone’s feeling?”.

Gratitude

Gratitude is the emotion of being thankful and grateful, the readiness to appreciate. It is very important for your child’s happiness. Children should be taught to be grateful for what they have. Children need to see their parents modelling an attitude of gratitude around them. Children learn everything by observing their parents or by doing it themselves. Don’t flood your child’s room with toys, the more you give them the less they appreciate. Practice saying ‘No’ and don’t just give in to your child’s request every time, that will teach them how to be grateful of what they have.

Introduce gratitude in your daily lifestyle; For example, start appreciating the things around in everyday talk “The flowers smell so good” or “I am glad to see you do your homework”. Practice saying the good things that had happened today a part of the mealtime conversation. Ask your children to do the daily chores like making the bed or cleaning the dishes. Participating makes children realize that all these things take effort.

Parents have to be patient; it can take years to teach gratitude to your children. Gratitude is not only the greatest of values, but also the parent of all the others.

Generosity

Generosity is being generous, kind and willingness to put other’s interests ahead of your own. Yes, this needs modelling too; teaching by example is the most efficient way. Demonstrate sharing the food while having meal together. Use the word ‘share’ extensively until you are sure that your child understood its meaning. Thank God for his generosity at mealtime and bedtime. Pick a charity cause and get your children involved in it. Practice doing charity on your child’s birthday, it will leave a great impression on them.

Respect

Respect is the admiration felt and shown towards another person. It is the root of all good manners and caring nature is the root of respect. It is important, and all children should be taught to be respectful. Children always trick parents to fulfil their needs; parents need to teach them the respectful way. Set a zero tolerance policy for bad language, warn them and show them the respectful way of talking. Do not tolerate bad behaviour or it will make your child believe that it is ok to behave like this with everyone else too.

Modelling goes for respect too, Parents should behave respectfully with their children and others too. Give and expect respect every time you communicate with your child. Praise them whenever they behave in a respectful way. Whenever you see another person being disrespectful, point it out to your children and warn them that they should never do the same.

Politeness

You have to be polite to show respect; in fact, it is the application and exhibition of all of the above. Polite behaviour will help your child’s social development. You can initiate the process by teaching the magical words ‘Please’ and ‘Thank you’. Do not give them what they want without a ‘Please’ and, a ‘Thank you’ is necessary after they get what they want. Teach your child to wait for their turn to speak and not to interrupt while others speak. Teach your child to appreciate a compliment with a ‘Thank you’.  Children will misbehave, but parents should stay calm and try not to loose their temper. Explain why the impolite behaviour is bad and they will be punished if they repeat.

“Acquiring good manners takes lots of practice and time, but remember, you are doing your children a big favour by teaching them good manners.”