Manners and the Remote Control

I was reminded the other night watching TV with my wife, there are manners associated with the TV remote controller. I knew that...sort of. The situation was this, she was watching a show that went to commercial, so she left the room and remote on the table. So, I picked up the remote and flipped to the sports channel to check scores, no problem… I indented on switching back to her show after the 3 minutes of commercials. Whoop’s was I wrong, no sooner had the channel been surfed, there came a booming *what are you doing? I was watching that TV show and listening to the commercials so I knew when to return to the living room *. What followed that comment was a dissertation on remote control manners and common politeness that extends to the use and handling of the almighty electronic marvel. Furthermore, I also learned that somehow I should have recognized these unwritten rules about *channel surfing* when I did not have control of the remote. My warning to you all, make sure the remote control (literally) is under your control and in your hands before changing the channels.

Ok, enough about the remote. The topic got me thinking about manners in general and raised this question; when was the last time you implemented the manners you were taught a child? I’m not talking about the formal manners that some people learn in preparation for social events, formal dinners or dances. I’m talking about the basic manners we all were taught as children and in turn passed onto our children. We all need to be reminded to practice manners everyday, teach our children by example and hopefully they will catch on. When I refer to the basic manners (some may categorize as common courtesy), here is my top 10 list:

*Say Please when requesting or asking for something
*Say Thank You upon receiving assistance or service
*Open a Door for someone
*Listen when someone else is talking, do not talk over them
*Offer your assistance to someone by saying Can I help?
*Correct a child’s behavior when they are disrespectful of family or other people
*Show Respect to everyone in your family, including your children
*Do not yell at anytime… in my book yelling serves no purpose in any situation
*Be Understanding
*Exercise patience

I strongly believe, everyday you are exposed to multiple situations that facilitate utilization of one or more of the manners listed above. The opportunities to use manners are endless and become available to you first thing in the morning. All you have to do is recognize your behavior patterns to see if you can exercise manners when an opportunity presents itself. It may take a while to catch on with the family or peers, but I assure you in a very short amount of time changes will occur. I hope with the implementation of basic manners in your daily regime, positive attitudes prevail and success in your life occurs.