Important Manners You Need To Be Teaching Your Kids

Knocking

There’s nothing more embarrassing about having your child barge in through a closed doors when you’re… in the middle of something. Teach them early that if a door is closed, or partly closed, knocking is expected.

Phone Call Basics

It is honestly amazing to us how few children and teenagers have basic phone manners these days. Help your kids understand early that they should always talk politely on the phone, introduce themselves, and say goodbye properly instead of just hanging up.

Appreciation

Appreciation isn’t just a skill that’s important to kids, it’s important to adults as well. Kids should understand what appreciation means, why they should always say thank you when someone helps them or gives them a gift, and why that appreciation is important to their relationships.

Bad Language

Many parents struggle with bad language, but the key might be how it’s portrayed. When bad language is seen as ‘taboo’ kids are more likely to want to do it. Instead explain that your child’s bad language only reflects badly on them as a person, showing that they’re rude and inconsiderate.

Hygiene

Yes, kids can be filthy little beasts, but as they grow you need to curb some of this behaviour so they know what is polite for them to do, and not to do, in public. Things like covering your mouth when you cough and sneeze, not picking your nose in public, and so on are all good places to start.

Random Kindnesses

Being kind to the people around you is a good mark of a polite person, no matter their age. Little things like holding doors open for people, offering assistance when you see someone struggling, and generally caring about the people in your environment, whether you know them or not, are great manners to teach.

Don’t Begrudge Favours

Kids often grumble and moan when asked to do favours, which is far from polite. Better manners dictates that kids accept tasks given to them, and offer help before they’re asked. Try to get them to imagine how they’d feel if when they asked you for something you also moaned and grumbled. This one can be hard, but it’s a worthwhile foundation to lay.

Table Manners

Some people don’t believe table manners are important, but there are different levels to these kinds of manners. If elbows on the table don’t bother you, that’s fine, but you can still talk about making a mess for no reason (for older kids anyway) and chewing with your mouth closed. That’s just basic politeness.

What manners do you make sure your kids have?