Being Polite and Using Manners

A couple of weeks ago on Halloween, I was left with the lovely task of handing out candy to trick-or-treaters.  We only had three little groups of trick-or-treaters which made my job not so fun.  One of the groups that came had about 8 little kids dressed as super heroes. While most of the kids ran up screaming “Trick-or-Treat” or “Happy Halloween,” one little girl marched up saying “gimme, gimme, gimme!”

I have a major issue with people (both children and adults) not using manners.  It is not that hard to say “please” and “thank you.”  I know that I should never do anything and expect something in return, but I greatly appreciate when somebody shows even shows me the slightest amount of appreciation.

People have often complimented the manners that my siblings and I have used while growing up and still do today.  To me, this is a very bad sign.  Everybody should be using manners, so us being polite should not stick out.

As a nanny, something that I really worked with the kids on was their manners.  When I told my parents this, they could not believe that I required the kids to use manners before I would give them something, even in front of the children’s parent.  My tolerance for not using manners is non-existent.

This brings us back to the greedy trick-or-treater.  I told her that I don’t give candy who kids who are rude and don’t use manners.  I continued to give candy to each of the other kids in the group, but skipped over the little girl, even as she kept shoving the candy sack towards me.  After I gave everybody else the candy and she was still standing there with her bag held up, I told them that only kids with nice manners get candy.  I asked her if she had anything she would like to say for some candy and she ended up asking politely if she could have some, so I gave it to her.

I told the kids to be safe and to have a happy Halloween, they thanked me, and they were on their way.

When I walked back into the house, my dad had said that he overheard the whole scenario and said that he could not believe that I was going to withhold candy from the child. He said it was rude of me to correct somebody else’s kid.

I did not think I was being rude (and still don’t think so).  I had never seen the little girl before and I will probably never see her or her friends again.  If what I said was strange to the kids, maybe it will stick with them or maybe they will learn from it.  Who knows?

I did not have to say anything.  I did not have to correct the girl’s lack of manners, but isn’t it kind of my responsibility? Correction. Isn’t it my generation’s responsibility?

As I have mentioned before, my generation takes a lot blame for things that happen in this world.  We are blamed for all sorts of issues that exist in our society.  Although we did not cause some of these issues, like the children being attached to electronic devices (the parents are the ones to blame, but I digress), it is our responsibility to fix them before they get too far out of hand.

It is the job of young adults, like myself, to make sure that our generation and future generations rise up and make this world a better place.  Although manners may seem like an insignificant issue (or even a non-issue), they are a basic sign of respect.  If we cannot respect one another on such a basic level, how are we going to truly appreciate each other’s lives?

Am I the only one who has an issue with people not using their manners? Was I out of line with how I dealt with the greedy trick-or-treater? Let’s talk about it in the comments!