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Home › Articles › Family › Got Manners?

Got Manners?

Teaching Our Children the Golden Rules

By Donna Smith

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The most important way parents can teach manners to their children is to have good manners at home with each other, says Vankevich. "Children are so discerning," she says. "They can tell a 'fake' a million miles away. Be respectful with your spouse. Say 'please' and 'thank you' at home. Sometimes we're the rudest to the people we love and sickly sweet to complete strangers that we'll never see again. We need to be polite to everyone, especially our family. Children will pick it up."

Peterson says she tries to always display good manners around her son. "A lot of times, if we do slip, Jared will correct us, which says a lot about his knowledge of good manners," she says. "You can't expect a child to do something if they don't see you doing the same thing. Smaller children will pick up things simply because they observe a parent doing it, good or bad. It might as well be a good habit."

Learning respect will affect children in other areas of their lives as they grow. "Another reason children need to learn respect for you their mom and dad is that how they treat their parents is exactly how they will treat their teacher at school and, as they get older, how they will treat their employer in the workforce or how they will respect police officers and the law," says Vankevich. "If at a young age they learn to respect and appreciate people who serve and protect them, that attitude will stay with them their whole life."

The Golden RuleRemember "The Golden Rule"? "We all learned it as kids, but sometimes we forget to live it," says Vankevich. "It's known in every culture in the world. Treat others as you would like them to treat you."

Vankevich says that this is the foundation for all manners. "Treat others nicely and with respect. If you don't want someone to be mean to you, then don't be mean to them. If you want people to say nice things about you, then say nice things about them."

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