Courtesy and manners

here we go..

I hate it when I see/meet people who have bad manners. My mother always taught us good manners and she had the authority to make us behave well and remember the basic manners and to be courteous and thoughtful and nice to people. Have the following things ever happened to you?:

1. You are just about to get to the door and the person going in sees you but won´t hold the door open for you?

It´s happened to me many times and it´s very annoying especially at work when I get to the front door because I have to take out ( and of course find the damn thing first ) my keycard and the person who turned and saw me and didn´t hold the door open just continues their walk even though they can still see me there going through my bag and trying to find the keycard. I never do that if I see a person who´s just about to reach the door, I stay there and hold the door. My life won´t fall apart if I give out 1 min to hold the door open.The same goes for holding the door open for elderly people and kids at a store or where ever.

2. At work, walk by without looking into your eyes or even saying hello?

oh this is so annoying. People see you. You see them and you know they saw you then they turn their head away or look at the floor when they pass you without saying anything. I mean you spend more time at work during the week than at home with your family, these people are all colleagues and we should get along well, my mom would kill me if I wouldn´t greet people. I don´t even know how many times I say, hi, good morning, hello,. what´s up?! at work when I come in every morning and I AWLAYS look people in the eyes and smile as I greet them, basic manners and when you´ve done it long enough it´s automatic :-D

3. People are talking to you and they look everywhere else but in your eyes?

every god damn day. It´s the same as having your sunglasses on indoors when you are talking to a person privately, I was taught to look a person in the eyes when talking to them. I always feel weird when talking to someone who stares at the wall while talking to you, I feel like looking at the wall like "what? did you see something weird on the wall?" and I feel like looking at the wall too :-D

4. Bad table manners

Oh this is something my mom was very specific about, always use your for and your knife. Never start before everyone has their food. Always use a tablecloth on your lap. Always use the knife and fork or the spoon in a correct fashion. Always wait for others to finish before leaving the table and leave together with the people you are eating with. If you are invited for dinner to someone´s house always take your own plate and glass to the kitchen or offer to help in clearing the table. Never rest your elbows on the table, make small talk etc.. we were very well trained with my brothers and my mother always tells us how she was complemented of our good table manners when we were invited to eat somewhere, but nowadays it´s automated and I teach the same manners to my son and I have had compliments about how well he behaves when sitting at a table. Oh and I have had so good training that when I go out to have dinner with my customers I don´t even have to think about these things, it comes naturally. My mom went as far as teaching us the correct ways with chopsticks too and that has helped me a lot during business trips to Asia

Sometimes I feel like people have forgotten about good manners and politeness, good manners and a smile to another person doesn't cost you anything so why not use it? It will not only light up the persons day you are being polite to but it will also boost your own identity with others.. also as a conclusion SMILE to others, you might not even notice it but one smile to a stranger might save that persons day, you don´t know what they might be going through and your smile just might help them get through that day!!