Today I went to my daughter’s holiday party at school. After watching the classroom of adorable kids sing festive songs, they all sat down to eat. The teachers put together a beautiful spread and clearly took their time to make this a special occasion. They went around to each of the kids offering different food items.
They get to my daughter.
“Would you like some strawberries?”
“No!”
Grrrrrrr. I wasn’t upset that she wanted the cookies over the strawberries, but her manners were just so off. Granted, she’s four, and as soon as I asked her how do we say no, she meekly replied, “no thank you”.
While four year olds are certainly not expected to be polite, adults are. But are we? Do we say please and thank you enough to someone helping us? Or do we just expect that the person behind the counter is being paid to take care of us, so pleasantries are not necessary?
How often do you say please and thank you to people helping you?
I would say I do when I think about it, but maybe it’s not as often as it should be. I do know that when I think about it, and use polite words, I get more attentive service. It’s as simple as ” treat people as you would like to be treated”.
Yesterday when I went for lunch on my own, I was in such a good mood, that I had it on my mind to smile and say please to the server at Roti. Usually when I’m there, I ask them for an extra scoop of tomato cucumber salad as I don’t get enough sides to fill the plate . I didn’t ask this time, and when I was ordering , he went back and filled my plate up with extra. Was it because I was polite or was it because he was doing his job well? I don’t know. But I’m sure it did not hurt.
My daughter received a great book two years ago for the holidays. The title is Give Please A Chance. I think the title says it all.
So won’t you give Please a Chance? Please?