I wasn’t going to blog today because I had nothing to write/whinge/rant about. That is until I was driving home after I picked up my daughter from school. 

Manners. They’re free. They cost you nothing except feeling good about being nice and polite. My Nana had one of many favourite sayings which I think applies here. You catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar. Now of course I don’t want to catch flies but you get the drift.

You are far more likely to get what you want if you use your manners. Alternatively to this, how difficult is it to say thank you when someone does something for you? Now the reason this came up as I was driving home; there were roadworks and one lane was closed. I got into the open lane early and waited while others pushed their way in. I let one of these impatient pushers in and not a single acknowledgement. I could have speed up and kept him out. I could have refused to let him in but I did and got donuts. Big fat ziltch. No wave, nothing. Now perhaps it is wrong of me to demand this but if the roles were reversed I would say thank you. I have noticed this happens a lot when driving. No thank you. No courtesy. If I happen to be one of these ‘pushers’ when I need to merge, I always give the wave... sometimes I get abused for being pushy even when using manners.

Now manners is one thing I drill into my kids.  A lot. Whenever they ask for something and don’t use the ‘magic’ word, I remind them. To me it is all part of being considerate. Perhaps I’m wrong.

Maybe I take manners too far. To the opposite extreme. If I’m out to dinner with a group of people I always wait till everyone has their meal before I start eating mine and then don’t leave the table till everyone is finished. Even when it is just me and the kids, I always wait till they are finished.

Perhaps I am simply too nice and think that manners should be second nature. But then again would I want someone to thank me and not mean it. This is another thing altogether.

So as I said... you catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar.