Always Mind Your Manners
Turn up on time say sorry if you’re late and a please or
thank you wouldn’t go amiss…
These days whenever I go hear people bemoaning the demise of
good manners. Just of the top of my head, these are some of the biggest
bugbears: those who conduct long conversations on their mobiles while ignoring
everyone else at the dinner table: those who let their kids riot in public
places without any attempt to discipline them: those who never bother say thank
{you never mind writing a thank you note} for a birthday present or a dinner
party those who arrive late as a matter of course and never ever bother to apologies
for their tardiness.
As you can see, the list is long and exhaustive. But what is
most worrying is that seems about boorish and offensive to some is seen as
perfectly acceptable behavior in someone else’s book. Most of the serial
offenders, when confronted with evidence of their bad manners confess that they
had no idea that they were, in fact, offending anyone. {arre. What’s a 15 -20
minute delay between friends, was the most common response}
So when is comes right down to it, what are good manners?
And is there a bare minimum that we can all agree on in an effort to keep the
wheels of social discourse running smoothly?
Well, first off, good manners dictate that you don’t
make people around you feel ill at ease, gauche, awkward or plain ignorant. It
is perhaps best illustrated by the famous and possibly apocryphal story of
Queen Victoria
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