What is Manners

Hello.  Welcome to The Etiquette Factory, a blog written for the purpose of helping you teach your children great manners to ensure your child’s future success.

Why Etiquette?  I bet if we asked our children if they can remember a time when they felt embarrassed, they could probably remember more than once.

Next, if we asked them how did the people around them respond, we would get answers like; laughed at, pointed at, ridiculed but hopefully some support as well.

Making people feel comfortable is a big reason we use good manners.

Another great reason for learning good manners is that it shows you are concerned about other people and you care about their feelings.  Remember when you tripped and fell while walking down the hall at school (some of us do)?   If those around us had been taught in the “art of etiquette”, they would have known that the appropriate response was to bend down and offer help.
Next, they might have said something like, “I’m sorry you fell, you should have seen the skid marks I left the last time I fell”.

They would have know that proper etiquette means helping others feel comfortable and by doing, feelings of empathy, personal characteristics such as integrity and sincerity begin to grow and expand into feelings of self worth and self confidence.

I promise you, that as we train our children in the art of etiquette, we will see qualities like; integrity, empathy, compassion, sincerity and self worth accumulate into their character, which will help them on the road to a successful life both personally and professionally.

Join me, as we discuss lessons on etiquette and great ideas to reinforce these lessons in your home without “nagging” on our children.  Games, role playing and kind discussion are at the heart of teaching.


Have a great week,
Monica Irvine
a.k.a. Mary Manners

Proper Behavior as a School Parent

Proper Etiquette While Being a School Parent

Attention Parents of School Children; this is for us.  Thanks to many teachers from Local Schools, we now have a great list of etiquette reminders, so that when engaging, helping and visiting our children’s schools, we can be sure that we are a blessing and a help to our children’s teachers instead of the opposite.  Need I say more?  So, here we go.

1. Please, when writing your child’s teacher a note, let’s not write on the wrapper of a Subway bag.  This does not show proper thought and preparation to discuss the matter at hand.
2. Oh my!  Please let’s not send handfuls of quarters delivered by sticky “paws” to pay for the field trip costing $10.75.  Let’s be more considerate of our teacher’s time.
3. Please send in the exact amount needed for a field trip or item.  The school or teacher does not keep change on hand so please do not send in a $20.00 bill if the needed amount is different than that.
4. Let’s not send blank checks with your child to your school.  We should all know the name of our child’s school (well maybe in a perfect world), so just go ahead and fill out the check completely.
5. It’s not polite to open the classroom door and quietly creep across the room to give wee Mary Margaret Cindy Lu a hug and positive vibes to help her throughout the day.  This inevitably disturbs the rest of the classroom and causes the teacher to develop a nervous tic.
6. The day of a field trip is very hectic.  Let’s not “hang out” in our child’s classroom the hour before the field trip as this causes even more chaos in the classroom.  Just simply wait in the car or the lobby.
7. It’s not polite to bring fast food to school for lunch for your child.  It’s against the nutrition policy for most schools and is not thoughtful for the other students having to, I mean getting to, eat school lunch.
8. Teacher’s time is so valuable, as is all of our time.  Let’s not grab our teacher for just a “quick minute,” but instead, schedule a teacher conference.
9. Please don’t walk your child to the classroom if late.  Just simply let your child check into the office and then walk themselves to their classroom.  The less disruption to the class, the better.
10. Sometimes things happen and we are late picking up our child from school.  Hopefully, it’s a rare occasion.  However, it we are late, it is polite to apologize to the teacher that has to stay late too and miss working time in the classroom.  Remember, proper etiquette means we strive to always be on time.  Usually when we are late, we cause interruption in someone else’s schedule.  Just be considerate of this.
11. Be very cautious when you are in the hallways at your child’s school and speak in soft hushed tones.  If you need to take a phone call, step outside.
12. Let’s remember, a lady never dresses in a way that brings attention to herself.  If we are true ladies, we want the attention to be on those around us.  With this in mind, let’s be mindful of the way in which we dress when attending our child’s school.  Tennis outfits, immodest attire and other clothing that is not appropriate for a school setting, should not be worn inside the school. 
13. Today, teachers are feeling more pressure than ever, yet teachers are often not enjoying the benefits of being duly compensated.  So, let’s make every effort to show our gratitude to our teachers by saying, “Thank you” often and helping our teachers as often as we can.
14. A great way to support our teachers is to make sure we are fully engaged in our children’s education.  This means we need to know what’s going on and what they’re studying.  We need to work with our children in the academic subjects that need improvement.  We need to help our children become responsible in keeping up with their assignments, goals and projects.
15. Finally, let’s be polite, courteous and gracious at all times with our teachers.  Yes, there may be occasions when we disagree with a grade, an assignment, or perhaps a disciplinarian action, however we can show respect and integrity when we approach our teachers assuming each other’s intentions are always with the student’s best interest at heart.

Let’s have a great school year and let’s use our manners in and out of our schools.

Have a great month,
Monica Irvine, a.k.a. Mary Manners