The lost form of etiquette

More and more often, I'm noticing how common it is for people to completely and totally omit manners and etiquette from their daily lives.

I wonder how much of it is from just not knowing manners and how much is from just pure laziness.

Some of my biggest pet peeves are: being late, not RSVPing, not acknowledging gifts, not saying please and thank you, having a sense of entitlement about just about anything and asking or demanding particular gifts. 

I push being on time with Kaitlyn really hard. I hate being late.  I think it is one of the most disrespectful things you can do to someone.  I think if it is something that happens on a regular basis it is essentially telling someone "my time is more valuable than yours" and is just in such poor taste.  Now, I get that things happen and come up, and I do think that one or two slip ups are one thing, it's the repetitiveness that I think is just so incredibly rude.

As someone who loves to throw parties, I can tell you, the inability for people these days to properly RSVP is enough to make me want to rip my hair out.  It seriously takes less than 5 minutes and the reason behind it should just be common sense.  RSVPing to an event allows the host to prepare the right food, enough favors (for kids parties and the like) and to plan the event accordingly.  Please do not be one of these offenders.

Thank yous!  This is a huge deal in our family.  Our rule with Kaitlyn (and with Samantha when she's old enough) is that you cannot touch, hold, try, spend or play with a gift until you have written that thank you card and it's in an addressed envelope ready for mommy to drop in the mail.  If someone is going to take the time, energy and thought to give you a gift, the very least you can do is to thank them for it.  My rule in the future is going to be, I do not want to burden someone with the responsibility of acknowledging a gift by giving one.  I love giving gifts.  Seriously.  I enjoy it.  And not for any hoopla or to look good or anything like that.  I just don't understand how we've strayed so far from saying thank you?

As long as I'm talking about how much I love giving gifts, I hate being restricted on what I can or should buy.  I think registries and wish lists are great sources of inspiration and ideas, but I hate when people make it clear that they only want X, Y or Z.  And in those cases, I will gladly give A, B or C without a gift receipt and if you would like to donate it to charity, by all means, please do.

Lately, these seem to be my biggest pet peeves.  They cover the most important lessons in etiquette and manners I try to teach my kids.  What are yours?