Good manners are as important as HSC and A-level grades when it comes to teenagers forging a successful career, according to the editor of Tatler, Kate Reardon.
The piece was in The Telegraph earlier in the week and really struck a chord with as we were always told as children that manners cost nothing.
This is so true but every single day I see an utter disregard for good manners from all walks of life and I am talking adults rather than children.
Pretty much most of the friends my boys have openly say please and thank you, send thank you cards after birthday presents, acknowledge you when you see then in the street or at school and they also smile.
Take many grown ups, who should know better, and boy is it a different matter.
To be honest it makes me sad and slightly pissed off when faced with the following kinds situations:
You stop for someone to cross the road and they walk past without so much as a wave or nod of the head.
You let a driver through and you would have thought from the contempt on their face they were doing you a favour.
After holding a door open for someone they walk on by like you are bad smell and needed extra deodorant and I often finding myself saying THANK YOU or YOU ARE WELCOME as they jog on in their cloak of rudeness.
When smiling a random strangers it’s so nice when they either look you up and down (mainly other women) or stare at you like you are stark raving bonkers.
There is nothing ruder than having the children with you and someone either shoves past or tuts loudly as they want to get through – have you not heard of ‘excuse me’ you ignorant moron?
Yes they are all little things in the scheme of life but as we hurtle our way through the 21st century, it gets worse and that is pretty sad.
I don’t really care if someone is busy, ‘unsure of themselves’ (God I hate the excuse and term for plain rudeness’) or have other things going on their life, if someone else (me) is good enough to do something for them, then at least smile or go one better, put yourself out and say THANK YOU.
I bring my sons up to be happy, confident and well-mannered. It doesn’t matter where you live, what car you drive, how much money you have in the bank, manners are not implied as someone who should know better once uttered to me, but rather a reflection of who you are and what your values are.
When Kate Reardon went on to say ‘never underestimate the value of good manners. I can count on one hand the number of people who wrote me a thank you letter after having an interview and I gave almost all of them a job,” she totally hit the nail on the head.
Manners maketh the man, or woman, and a lack of them speaks volumes.
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