They DO exist!

Mr. Incredible and I work every day to make sure our children have (and use) good manners.

Most of the time they use those manners, but like anything it's a work in progress.

I have noticed more and more that today's children (wow, I sound old) are, generally speaking, not held as accountable for their manners as we would have been as kids.

We teach our children to open the door for people, hold the door for people, say please and thank you, etc...even the three year old tries to open doors for people. It has actually been pointed out to us by strangers and teachers more than once how polite our children are. Yes, I'm bragging just a bit.

One mannerism that I was taught is that when you are walking and someone driving stops to allow you to cross the street, you give a small wave to say thank you. We teach our kids this every time we are out for a walk. The three year old likes to also scream "THANK YOU" at the top of her lungs...but the wave is sufficient. To be honest, I kind of thought that nobody was teaching their kids this. I have been dropping my kids off at their schools for over a year and have let many a school-aged child cross in front of my car. Never have I seen a wave of thanks...until this morning!

I cannot tell you how happy it made me to see a little girl and her sister (they both would be between ages 6 and 10, given the school) cross in front of my car and then the older sister looked at me, smiled, waved, and mouthed thank you. THEN, (that wasn't all) she stopped and told the younger one to wave to say thank you and she did too! It was amazing to see that someone is, in fact, teaching their children this. And I would like them to know that their children listened!

So, to all who teach their children good manners. Keep it up! They are actually paying attention. Someone will take notice and appreciate the small moment your child took to be polite.