Hello parents and friends of this community, I hope you are having a good day. I started the subject of good manners with Luna when she was about 3 years old, when she started to talk, with the first word "thank you", when she gave me something I always said thank you, well I still do, but at that age Luna said thank you every time she was given something, it was beautiful to hear her say it by herself, until little by little she stopped doing it, obviously at 3 years old she does not know well what thank you was, she simply repeated what I said to see me happy, because I celebrated her a lot and she noticed it.
But as she grew older she stopped saying it, I came as I was taught and as others said to force her to say "thank you", "please" and she had no choice but to say it forced, I found myself telling her every moment, repeating: you want water, but you missed something in that request, and she "ah yes": please mom I want water, again and again I had to remind her please and she was tired of it.
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Then I thought about how I don't want her to do things forced, maybe that's why she doesn't say it, she must want to do it, so how can I make her understand that it is important to have good manners, to be thankful for the things that are done for you and from so much thinking I came to the conclusion first to be an example, that was already covered and second to talk to her about being thankful. I would thank her for the smallest thing she did and then at night before going to sleep I would tell her how grateful I was for the day we had today, for having food on the table, because many people don't, for having her close and being able to hug her because many moms are far away from their children, I was thankful that we had time to play together for a little while or thankful that grandma came to spoil us.
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She would ask me if it was true that many people don't have food, that many children are far away from their mother? I would answer her yes, that we are lucky and it feels great to be thankful for the good things we have and the things others do for us. I made this a routine before bedtime, to see if I could make her aware of being thankful, little by little she was understanding, in fact once she said to me: mommy, can I help you wash the dishes? So you don't have so many things to do and you can rest, and I wanted to melt all over hahaha, it was beautiful to hear her say that, I hugged her a lot and thanked her for wanting to help me.
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Currently, we are in the process of the "please", because sometimes she also says it and sometimes not, I said I would apply the same technique, since it had worked for me, first is to be the example, covered and secondly talk to her a lot about why we should say please, until she creates awareness and say it alone, that no one is to do things for us without asking please, that asking please is also a way to thank her effort to leave what she is doing to attend us, I can be doing a lot of things and Luna comes to ask me for water with a very "affectionate": mama water. So what is that? "mama water" hahaha I automatically turn around with a murderous look hahaha because really how rude is that sincerely.
At that moment I took the opportunity to sit next to her and ask her what is mommy doing, mommy is cooking, washing, attending the computer, she is attending many things at the same time, let's be nice to people, it sounds nicer for people to hear a "please", mommy please can you serve me water? And mommy will feel happy to serve you water, because her feelings are also important as yours and you will feel much better for being considerate of other people's efforts, believe me you will feel better about yourself.
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And so I am giving her a talk every chance I get, because I feel that forcing her, I am not teaching her anything, she is not really feeling it, from the heart and when we really feel it, it will come out by itself, forcing her I only condition her brain to follow orders just because, without questioning anything, just to do and later on anyone will come to demand something from her and she will do it without questioning why, without taking into account her feelings. And of course, example is the most effective thing that exists and we know that our little ones are constantly watching even if we don't realize it. And how do you instill good manners in your little ones? I read tips or techniques hehe
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Thanks for stopping by, I hope you have a successful week, I send you a big hug.