According to a recent survey, Briton’s feel that the manners in their society have gone downhill. Nearly 90% of the people responding to the survey blame parents who are not teaching their children manners and celebrities behaving badly that have glamorized it.

And 75% of them thought that manners should be taught in schools.

Don’t teachers have enough to do in school? Sure, they should require the basic polite behaviors of please, thank-you and speaking respectfully to other people. But I have to wonder, if people are so upset about the lack of manners, why aren’t they teaching them to their children themselves.

Modeling good behavior is always better than just telling children what to do. Children see everything. If you are telling them to be polite and kind to others, and yet do not act that way yourself, they will see the contradiction. Likewise if children see you act respectfully to others, they won’t even question that it is the way to behave. No matter what they see celebrities doing on the television.

Like my grandmother used to say, “Little pitchers have big ears.”  You should make sure that they are overhearing the right things.