Good Manners on Monday (on Tuesday) # 5

The Manners Relapse.

earn coin or loose coin with your manners

As a parent, I work hard on ensuring that my children use good manners, not only at home, but most importantly out in public too. It brings me great joy to hear from a teacher/parent/friend/stranger that my children use good manners. It means we are doing our job well. However, there has been a bit of a Manners Relapse in the home.

It seems that Junior is forgetting to use his "P's and Q's". All I ask is for a simple please when asking for something and a thank you in return. Oh, and no whining. That's not too much to ask of an eight year old...is it? Mini Hoges (4 years younger) is doing really well on the Manners front, we only occassionally have to prompt him.

So my solution is to start a Manners Jar. A bit like a swear jar. Except that with this jar, you EARN money for using manners. 10 cents each time, without prompting. The jar also encourages children being compliant when asked to do something. Eg: "Sure mum, I'd be happy to take the recycling out", as opposed to whinging and whining about contributing to the household chores. 

Last week I wrote about finding your currency in my post about Discipline. And the use of money is definitely a form of currency that my kids understand. And so, failure to use manners (please and thankyou) will result in a 10 cent fine. A first reminder at the start of the day is ok, but if you have to keep reminding them to use manners, especially the older kids, then the fining begins.


Do you have a creative solution for reinforcing good manners?

Be Happy, 
Nicola