More Parent’s Etiquette Advice

POINTS FOR PARENTS

                                                                        By Edyth Thomas Wallace 

Children respect parents more for being fair than they do for being always right.

• Not This – Mother: “I can't see myself apologizing to a child because I thought he took money from my purse. Anyway, my talk on honesty won’t hurt him.”

• This – Mother: “Son. I want to apologize for insinuating that you took money from my purse. I remember now that I paid the paper boy with it.” – 1952

More than most people, parents need to remember that strong emotion and clear thinking cannot function at the same time.

• Not This – Father: “Now don’t go off to your room and sulk. Come back here and we'll settle this thing right now.”

• This – Father: “Let's wait and talk this over later, Son. We are both angry now and can't think clearly.” –1954

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia

Parenting Etiquette Advice

POINTS FOR PARENTS

By Edyth Thomas Wallace 

An important factor in teaching children to be non-Interrupting listeners is giving them the opportunity to live with adults who are, themselves, this sort of person.

• Mother (Interrupting): “Say ‘he’ not ‘him’, Son . . . Don’t talk so fast . . . You said that before ...”
• Mother: “You told the story of the movie so well, I almost feel as though I had seen the picture, too.”

Both parents and children grow mentally when they continue to learn.

• Mother: “I don’t see why grown ups ever want to go to school again. When I finished college I was glad enough to put my books away for keeps.” 

• Mother: “I have decided to lake one of these courses in art. You are growing up so fast, I'll want something to do after you leave.”
  
  
  
  

Both children and parents are happier when parents recognise and accept Individual differences.

• Mother: “I don’t see why you always have to be on the go or have a gang here. Why can’t you settle down and read or play happily alone as your brother does?”

• Mother: “This is Tom, who likes active play with his gang and this is Jim who likes quieter things. They are very different and it’s interesting to have them so.”

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia 

In Praise of Old Etiquette Books

“You don't happen to remember your name, do you?” 

Even dusty old etiquette books are nothing to sneeze at!

It was on a crumbling page of a 100-year-old etiquette book that Miss Manners came across the solution to that enduring problem: What to say when confronted with a person whose name you know you are expected to know, but don't. The answer comes to us from an anonymous Victorian, apparently a Hero of Etiquette but described merely as “a good-natured eccentric.” 

Beaming a jovial smile at a vaguely familiar face, he would inquire in a pleasant, oh-by-the-by tone, “You don't happen to remember your name, do you?” Miss Manners is given to perusing aged volumes for just such forgotten devices to ease the difficulties of life. Vintage etiquette holds up remarkably well. The human body may have changed, as anyone trying to squeeze into vintage clothing may discover, but the situations into which it manages to get itself, are not all that different. In some cases, whole sets of manners may simply be retrieved and dusted off. – Judith Martin, aka Miss Manners, 1988

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia 

1930's Girl Scout Etiquette

Circa 1936 – Girl Scouts sell their famous cookies.

Girl Scout Rules

Girl Scouts of the United States are taught to observe the rules of the road and the etiquette of highways. One of the first regulations is not to be a “trail hog” and leave tin cans, fruit peelings, empty cracker boxes and paper along the pathway. The definition of a “trail hog” is one who does not stop to think how the thoroughfare and adjacent territory will look to the next traveler. – Coronado Eagle and Journal, 1930

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber, is the Site Editor for the Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia

1912 Office Etiquette Advice

"Be Courteous and Considerate" 

"DROP FASCINATIONS IN BUSINESS"

Advice to Women,

 by Stage Actress, Rose Curry

"Forget to be fascinating when you go into an office. This," says Rose Curry, "Is the keynote to success for business women. The etiquette of the office is clearly drawn and it is quite different from the etiquette of society, although its restrictions are along somewhat different lines."

"Girls who would succeed and would keep the respect of others, as well as maintaining their own personal pride, should lay aside those little airs and fetching ways that are so becoming in the drawing room or parlour. 

Do not remind men with whom you come in contact that you are a woman. But do not go to the other extreme. Be courteous and considerate, but do nothing that will appear to be a bid for homage from your male associates in the office. 

What about office flirtations? "Well, I wasn’t in an office very long, but I think that all employers know by the manner of the girl, whether she is there for work or frivolities, and the serious minded, earnest girl who desires to support herself in a dignified businesslike manner, may do so without thought of interruption.” — Los Angeles Angeles Herald, 1912

Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J Graber, is the Site Moderator and Editor for the Etiquipedia Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia