Manners from the "Golden generation"

Thu 16 Nov 2006, 00:43

But if I let daughter say anything she is being rude, if I say anything...........
OK Kate will let her do the look!!

Mon 30 Oct 2006, 23:11

I feel so sorry that you have to make a point of saying that to your kids Kate. In the twenty odd years that I lived in Charlbury I always found all generations to be very polite to each other, and it is such a shame that nowadays manners have just disappeared from the English way of life, as has the laissez faire that still happens here.

Maybe you should fit a bicycle bell to your buggie so you can ring it to let the oldies know they are out of order

Mon 30 Oct 2006, 22:51

Fab Don! John Larder I think you may have missed some 'fourm action' from last year that Don was here to witness.

Gary, if and when you find the answer let me know!! I have taken to saying loudly "Isn't that awful children, that that lady/gentleman hasnt got any manners. I'm so glad you have and that you'll never treat people like that when you're older"
I've had more doors held open for me, help with buggies etc from teenagers than anyone over the age of 50. I really think the youth of today is much maligned and that our elders and betters really don't deserve the respect I drum into my kids to give them.

Here's a thought. Tell your daughter to look at them over the top of her glasses. They won't forget that in a hurry!

Mon 30 Oct 2006, 20:54

I got the feeling from her postings Don, that Imogen was of a younger generation, and I never saw her comments to be impolite to deserve a reply like that - but treat people as you would like to be treated.

Apologies to Imo if she is being tarred with the same brush as I gathered she no longer lived in Charlbury

Mon 30 Oct 2006, 20:47

Difficult one this and not an easy one to reply to. Also now living in rural France I have a totally different insight into things about manners.

Sometimes people in their senior years just do not see the younger generation and do not realise the impoliteness of some of their actions.

In France respect to people older than you is given without question, but saying that the respect given in return is amazing.

We were invited to the opening of a photographic exhibition by the local shop owner and the number of people who introduced themselves to us or who made a specific point of talking to us was amazing and all of them were senior citizens.

If you walk into a shop in France you say hello to everyone (Bonjour Messieurs Dames) and they say hello back, after two years here our kids found it awful in the UK to walk into a shop and say hello and people turn away as if they were doing something rude.

There will always be people who do something rude by their actions, no matter what age they are, I understand your disappointment in that ,but it is sadly a fact of life.

Mon 30 Oct 2006, 15:57

It wasn't Imogen was it?

Sat 28 Oct 2006, 21:13

As a parent of a small child can anyone give me any ideas of pointing out to the more senior memembers of life that pushing into a queue infront of a seven year old is not the best way of showing good manners, nor when she steps oput of the way to let them past/ through a door blanking her does not show the standard of manners that I am trying to teach her. Or have I set my standards to high?
Comments please.