If your kids are watching commercials they may be learning bad manners!

I recently saw a national commercial with a family passing the (very well known) butter to each other at the dinner table. I was shocked to see the ad feature a family who each wanted to spread the butter on their bread and they asked to have someone else pass the butter by saying just that: “Pass the butter”. It happened more than once during the commercial and it sounded just as grotesque to me the second time as it did the first!

What I want to know is which advertiser is responsible for putting something so coarse and so rude on the air! Didn’t your mother teach you always to say please? At least when you pass the “Grey Poupon” you’re saying it with style!

Manners in our society have been dwindling for the past several years. People live in a constant state of rush so the little things like manners get tossed out the window. It’s such a shame too, because if you ask any executive what is the number one thing that makes a person successful, I guarantee that they won’t say, his or her intelligence. They’ll talk about team work, and the ability of getting along with others. They’ll talk about how nice the person is, and how likable.

So moms, when your kids are running out the door now in a hurry, one of the greatest gifts that you can give them is to demand that they be polite. Make them say their “pleases and thank you’s”. They may get annoyed at you now, but they’ll be thanking you 5-10 years from now when they have to be in the work force and they feel like a fish out of water. Even if they have no clue what to do, if they are nice, and polite, others will take them under their wing and help them out.

So people, let’s practice our manners at home, so when we’re out interacting with each other, we don’t end up sounding like we’re on a bad butter commercial!