Etiquette and child rearing

I know that this is going to sound funny, but I love to read etiquette books. I'm certainly not saying that I always use the most perfect etiquette. I simply find them interesting and sometimes amusing. The "proper"way of doing things is just not always "available". Okay,I try to be polite, mind my manners and write thank-you notes. But some of this gets to be ridiculous and hilarious. I have been thinking about this lately because of the kids I guess. I want them to be nice to people. We want them to make eye contact with the person they are talking to, speak when spoken to, and never hide behind us to avoid the situation. Our children get in trouble for not being "nice". I want people to like to see my children coming. Acting like "little toots"( to quote my mother) is simply not tolerated. I know that to many people in this world I would be considered a strict parent. Great. Let me tell you, this past week I have been reading for the second time, Dare to Discipline by James Dobson. He really knows what he is talking about. With every page I hear my mother speaking. ( It was her book and handed it down when I had Lucy). She must have memorized it word for word. Or she gave Mr. Dobson the material to write ;) . He tells when to spank, how to spank and why to spank. Then he tells how to explain this to your child. I'm looking at this paperback book, yellowed with years and I see moma, hear moma and since most of my childhood memories are linked with smell, I smell moma. (merle norman cream if you were wondering) It's 1984, sitting on the end of my bed sobbing after receiving the "beating" of my life(I thought) and in walks Pam. "Julie, do you understand why I spanked you?" "no ma'am, "I spanked you because I love you and I want you to obey. I love you too much to let you behave like that. I spank you to help you to remember to never act like that again". Fast forward, 2007. On any day, at any time you will probably be hearing the same things coming out of my mouth to my kids. What I thought was soooo dumb and wrong back then, I now realize was right and not dumb at all. I just hope that my kids realize that when they get older. I just have about 3 more years to be smart. I figure after that I won't be smart for about 15 years. I got off the etiquette thing and these 2 subjects might not seem like they go together but they do. We are our children's life teachers. Lord, please help me on my lesson plans. Deuteronomy 6:7. Thanks mom for being a great teacher.

Okay back to the etiquette. I think that it is so funny when people see a new baby they automatically say," He looks just like his mother or she is the spitting image of her daddy". If you know both parents it is easy to see the child in both of them, but if you know only one, say the mother, they look just like her. Have you ever thought about that. "Cute" babies are precious and "ugly" babies are sweet. Right? That' s so bad. Since I had Jack my memory has not been the best. It's rather embarrassing. I'm sorry if I have said this before. John lets me know frequently that I am telling things over and over again. Because I do not remember saying these things, I deny it. Tonight, while thumbing through my "E" book I came across a section called Repeating Stories Again. Because I am told that I do this I decided that I would read on. The question was " Is there any method one can use to tell a friend that she has told a story previously and ask her to desist?" I'm not going to type out Miss Manners response. I thought to myself- I have become material for this book. Oh no. I have had this particular book for many years and I thought of a few new problems in our world. Can anyone say soapbox? Cell phones. I have one, love it, use it every day. My problem is the phones that people wear on their ears. I think it is perfectly fine to "wear" these things on your ear if you are driving down the highway and you need to be "hands free" but walking around in stores, entering bathrooms -not good. I guess people think they cannot have one moment without their phone connected to theirs bodies. They are so lazy that they can't reach into their purse or pocket and grab their phone when it rings. Or maybe they are so important that they have to have it there to talk to at the blink of an eye. Not sure. You don't know how many times I have walked into a restroom stall and hear from another stall, "Hey", Not knowing if they are needing something like paper or something I say , "hey". From the next stall, "what are you doing?" me, "aw, just going to the bathroom" next stall, "Can I call you back, the crazy next door is answering my questions" Oops. I think to myself, is anything private? Not when you have one of those phones. You could go anywhere you wanted with a phone connected to your ear, even to the Hancock Fabrics restroom. John is upset with me. It's late. I'll send some pics out tomorrow. to take a quote from Paul Harvey, Now you know the rest of the story. Good day.