Asma Balfaqih
Good manners
The first words of the day
In many families the day starts with an instruction. Get dressed, hurry up, where are your shoes. That is understandable, because mornings are tight. Even so it is worth changing the order and starting the day with a greeting, before the first instruction arrives.
A greeting tells a child: I see you before I want something from you. Children sense that difference very precisely. In our house it has turned into a small habit. Whoever wakes up first greets the others, and nobody is allowed to let a greeting pass unanswered.
This habit also became the first story in "Good Manners at Home". Sara greets her mother before she asks about breakfast. Children understand what courtesy means from that faster than from any explanation.