September 1 - The Start of National Good Manners Month

As several of you know, I subscribe to the Miss Janice Newsletter. Miss Janice is an etiquette afficionado and most definitely a southern belle. I just received my September newsletter and wanted to share the following...

National Good Manners Month
Back-to-school time is a great time to start fresh with your child’s behavior training. Good manners should start at home. Unfortunately, if parents don’t know how to behave, then children rarely have a chance to learn etiquette skills. Nowadays, most parents send their children off to daycare or school with the attitude of “You fix ‘em—I don’t have time.” The other day I was in the library when a mother came in with three children—two teenagers and a small child who was about three years old. Of course, the little one was squirming and fussin’. The mother and the teenagers kept putting their index fingers in front of their mouths and shushing her. I looked up and giggled—well, she was a small child after all. Anyway, to my horror, a few minutes later I heard the mother tell the little girl to “Shut the ‘blank’ up!” Can you imagine your mother talking to you that way? The worst thing I ever heard my mother say was I swannee! A genteel Southern lady like my mother would never say I swear, and that’s what I swannee means in Southern talk. So this was my mother’s idea of cussin’ and it was reserved for those rare times when she was about to blow up…she’s so Southern.

Parents should take responsibility and teach their children how to behave before they send them off to school. Remember that today’s children are tomorrow’s leaders. Here’s some tips that might help you get started teaching your child how to behave:



~Teach your child to share with others.

~Teach your child to wait their turn.


~Teach your child not to interrupt while others are speaking.


~If you show respect to others, your child will learn a valuable lesson from you.


~Teach your child the importance of being honest.


~If you practice kindness by using words like “please, thank you, you’re welcome, and excuse me,” your child will learn another valuable lesson from you.


~Praise your child when they show good manners.

“Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.”
Proverbs 22:6