Mind your Ps and Qs

So, Jude is now officially two and half, not just merely two, and I would like to draw attention to something that I think is pretty fucking awesome.  At this tender, young age, so fondly refereed to as the "Terrible Twos" my son not only says 'please' and 'thank you' with great regularity, he also says 'you're welcome', 'bless you' when someone sneezes, sorry, even when he accidentally does something (intent should never be a factor), and within the last week has started saying excuse me when he burps.

We, of course, started the process by teaching him please and thank you in sign when he was too young to verbalize them so when he did reach the speech milestone the foundation has already been laid.  We continued to ask him to "say the whole sentence" when asking for something which meant saying please, identifying the object or activity he wanted and also the individual he was asking it from (this is something I find very important but is often left out in the manner teaching these days.  And yes, sir and ma'am are coming up here soon.) in whatever order he could get it out in.  From there, the rest has simply been teaching by example.  I always ask him please and tell him thank you for everything, even hugs and kisses.  I tell him you're welcome every time he says thank you.  I say bless you when I hear anyone sneeze and I always tell him I'm sorry if I bump into him, or if I overreact over something.  Oh, and when I burp I say excuse me, at least when he's around.

It's simple.  It's wonderfully simple.  It's so simple I have no idea why other children aren't as polite as mine... oh wait... it's because the parents themselves can't measure up to my two and half year old son.  I'm shaking my head and frowning right now, even if you can't see it, trust me, it's happening.

You've probably heard it before, and you'll likely hear it again, but it's true; behave how you want your children to behave.  And start young.