What's the Magic Word?

It was a fabulous three days spent in Illinois visiting Jason, Michelle, and 22 month old, Teagan.  It’s always amazing to me how quickly she changes in a relatively short amount of time.  She is full of energy and “talking” all the time – more and more words which we can all understand now.  I attribute much of that talking because of her learning sign language.  All of our grandchildren have learned to sign.  It opens up a whole new world where they can express their needs long before they can actually say the word, eliminating so many frustrating times for both the parents and the child – and grandparents.  Words such as “eat,” “milk,” “more,” are some of the first ones they learn.  Then there’s the “magic word” – “PLEASE.”  MANNERS! It’s a word that is used at first with some prompting and now it’s a habit.

In the 14 hour drive, I was able to catch up with reading the April issue of Success magazine.  On page 20, an article entitled, “Family Manners; Giving Loved Ones a Taste of Workplace Etiquette,” by Melissa Balmain, caught my attention.  She acknowledged she and her husband began to realize they were “more polite to people we weren’t married to than we were to each other.”  What they began was their own “campaign” for courtesy by asking themselves:  “Would I treat someone at the office this way?”  This campaign, as she called it, was saying those “magic words” such as please, thank you, you’re welcome, and excuse me. “ It didn’t stop there.  Melissa realized she had made a promise to her eight year old daughter about making a charm bracelet together, but she had been postponing that.  That is until she realized, like a boss she once had had kept postponing her “pet project.”  Her 14 year old son hadn’t been paid for babysitting he had done in the past.  “If he had been an adult employee of mine, he could have long sued me for back pay and won.”  Then there were the emails and phone calls from parents, siblings, friends that had been put on the back burner until “she could get to them.”  Not a top priority like her work emails and phone calls.  The results of her new focus is the family, siblings, and friends are answered in a more timely way – respect for other people and their time. 

Melissa’s new mantra…”Do Unto Family as You Would Do Unto Colleagues.”  Why not remember what we learned in the Bible a long time ago…”Do unto others, as we would have others do unto us?” It can start as easy as Teagan and my other four grandchildren practice – use the “magic word” PLEASE.

Your task for this week is to watch yourself.  How are you doing in the respect and manners category with your spouse?  Your children?  Your parents?  Your friends?  It has nothing to do with time, lack of skills, money, or any of the other easy to use excuses.  It’s ALL about how much we respect care, and value those closest to us. 

Thank you for reading my blog this week.