Good Manners Found in Happy Homes

“It is the greatest help to a girl when she goes out in the world to be able to feel at ease in society, to enter and leave a room gracefully and to find the right thing to say when her mother's friends speak to her.”

 

Happy Homes and Good Manners

 

It is the greatest mistake to think that manners are only for society and are to be set aside with our outdoor garments when we come home. If manners are meant to bide the unsightly side of human nature, to clothe the nakedness which shocks our highly cultivated sense of what is fitting, it is surely at home that this primitive aspect is most likely to obtrude, and it is just as shocking when displayed at our own fireside as to the world at large. 

If parents taught the sons of the house to be polite to their sisters and if they themselves were polite to each other, there would be fewer unhappy homes. Boys often think that manners are only meant for girls. but, they would be none the worse or less manly for knowing how to behave. While it is the greatest help to a girl when she goes out in the world to be able to feel at ease in society, to enter and leave a room gracefully and to find the right thing to say when her mother's friends speak to her. – From “Good Form,” 1911

 

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