Friday, October 21, 2011

Thank You- No Thank You...

Kate Spade Thank You Notes
photo credit
Has the art of writing thank you notes died?

I may be old fashioned, but I always thought that whenever you received a gift from someone you were supposed to write them a thank you note?

Last year at my son's fourth birthday party we chose not to have him open all of his presents from his friends during the party because little kids would rather be playing in the jump house and eating cake than watching my son tearing open wrapping paper. After the guests from school left we let him open the gifts from our immediate family that were still there. My son and I wrote thank you notes to all of his friends and any family/friends of ours who left earlier in the day to thank them for the gifts and for coming to his party. Anytime a family member mails a gift we also always send a thank you note.

My son has gone to two birthday parties this year and has not received one thank you note. The gifts at each party were not opened during the parties so it seems to me that a thank you note would definitely be in order. After my son's party we handed out our thank you notes the following week. Being too busy is not an excuse either- I mean I had two kids and was pregnant and still managed to make really nice thank you notes for everyone (I printed out a picture that my husband took of all of the kids in the jump house and we wrote the note on the back).

I guess I'm a little taken aback by parents not teaching their kids manners. Thank you notes are a great way to show your appreciation to someone and the younger a child learns how to write them the more instilled in them this token of appreciation will be. It really makes your child sit back and have to think about each gift they received and it also shows them how to be thankful for a gift even if it may not be something they like all that much. Someone took the time to pick out a thoughtful gift and took the time to attend your party so they should at least get a thoughtful thank you note.

Like I said, maybe I'm just old fashioned.

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