On a Mission to Find Manners!

I'm not sure when it started, but sometime between my 5th birthday and my 28th (which is seriously around the corner and scaring me to pieces!) people decided "Let's just not give a shit!"

Excuse my language; I understand that I'm writing about manners and here I go spouting off some filth. It's just that I get so worked up when someone is blatantly rude or completely ignores a kind gesture or even the opportunity to perform a kind gesture.

Here are my top 3 favorite manner rules:

1) Under no circumstances should you be talking on your Blackberry or IPhone when checking out at the grocery store, making a monetary transaction, being spoken to by a person of service face to face or ordering your daughter's Happy Meal in the McDonald's drive-thru. Ask the person on the other end "Can you hold on for a second please..." or "Can I call you back in just a few minutes?" In my final days in retail I very literally skipped people who were standing directly in front of my cash register, staring at the menu board, popping their gum and saying "Uh huh...oh I'm trying to decide what to get...na, I'm at Barnes and Noble...have you had the Caramel Mocha Breve?...uh huh..." If you don't have time for me to serve you, you don't deserve to be served - Next Please!

2) When someone speaks to you, acknowledge them. I don't care if they are a complete stranger or your great-grandmother who requires you to yell into her left ear. If I ever ignored someone who spoke to me when I was growing up...well, let's just say it was not a pleasant experience. So the next time someone says "Excuse me" when walking in front of you in the grocery store, at a very minimum make eye contact and say "Sure." And when someone says "God Bless You" after you've sneezed seven times so loudly that the entire huddle of passengers at gate C7 is staring at you, you better pipe up and say "Thank You."

3) When you see a woman, ESPECIALLY a woman with children or with her arms full, and you're within 2 feet of the door she's about to enter, damn it you better open that door her!! This may sound chauvinistic, and I admit that I have done this for men and women alike, but a woman who is carrying groceries or carrying children or pushing a stroller deserves to have the door held open for her. Period.

So consider this my diary of manners I encounter - the good, the bad, and the embarrassing. I hope you're nice to me because I WILL put you on blast, right here on my blog!

I'm a Mommy on a Mission to Find Manners!