No Thankyou?

[vinny200]

Can anybody please tell me if the word Thankyou has been eliminated from the English language.Ive just been reading on teletext(  Write On- page 346)of a person who spent over �500 last year on Birthdays present xmas presents etc ,without even recieving a single thankyou.Next year she is treating herself to a holiday instead.Any comments?

[Glossopswift]

She needs better friends and probably would be better off on the holiday. My family both give and receive ample thank yous, a phone call from the adults and a letter or card from the kids. It's still a well used part of our language. I shall, of course, expect a thank you for my answer, vinny200!

[andy hughes]

I am very keen on good manners. All my children learned to say thankyou instincrtively because, as little ones, what ever was being handed to them would not be released until the phrase was used. I think in common with most of society, good manners are being eroded, but I do my bit to keep them going - and I hope that others will take note of this Question, and do the same - to be fair, the level of politeness on this Site is normally well above average.

[vinny200]

I also taught my kids,now teenagers to say thankyou Andy.And thank goodness they have carried on being polite.It doesent cost anythink does it,And you often get a smile of somebody when you say thankyou.Also when they receive presents they phone their nan or grandad up And of course they should.Thanks everybody.

[coggles]

Hello Vinny & Andy.

Our daughters are 5 and 2 years old and we have taught them to say please and thank you, as well as pardon me, excuse me please etc., and our eldest will open doors for people. If she is thanked, she often says 'You're welcome'.

It doesn't cost a thing to say thank you and be polite, but unfortunately, it does seem to be 'going out of fashion' - but not in our family.

[dmsjps]

It's horrible because we all sound so 'old', but I agree that it seems some people don't teach their children to be polite any more.

 

People have always told me how proud I should be of my children because they've always been polite. Of course, they don't learn it all by themselves and my own children have told me that lots of times they feel like 'an old granny' when they find themselves automatically correcting their friends for not using their Ps and Qs, etc.

 

My kids aren't perfect, not by a long chalk - but then again, no one is - so I'm not bragging about them, but I always did as Andy Hughes and Vinny200 did: if they didn't ask properly they didn't get it; if they didn't say thank you, it was taken away from them. It's harder at the time, but it's worth it later on.

 

Now my children are 17 and 14 and I guess the worst is yet to come ...

 

Watch this space!

[purplefish]

you know whos manners I find the worst? middle-aged women (sorry if theres any out there, i'm sure you're all lovely hehe) i always hold doors open for people, and they usually happen to be middle-aged women, and nobody ever says thank you. I always say thank you, to everyone, whether they're old, young, man or woman. people obviously think I don't deserve to be thanked, just because most of todays youth have no manners, doesn't excuse rudeness to those of us who do.
sorry for the rant, it just annoys me.

[kick3m0n]

my son is only 17 months old and even he says Thank you (well, actually 'Ta' is all he can manage just now, but he gets his point across), but you know, some people are surprised that he says this word. Like Andy and Vinny, he's always heard us say the word, even  before he could speak properly.     I don't think we all sound old, I think we sound civilised.   To not teach children to be polite is just lazy and rude.   I always write thank you notes for Charlies birthday and Christmas pressies, and he'll do them himself as soon as he's old enough.  I just don't understand why anyone wouldn't do this.

[smudge]

In the first instance, our two daughters were taught to say: please, thank you, pardon, bless you, sorry, your welcome, etc.......... I'm happy to say that this has now been passed on to their children, who are an absolute delight..

[Flurfl]

If she didn't get a single thank-you either verbally or written then she has unusually impolite friends/relatives or they don't like her at all and she is trying to buy their affection.

I hope that is more likely that she is refering to not recieving written thank you notes for the gifts. These are certainly less common nowdays as people are more likely to pick up the phone and thank them. I don't think that this makes them any less sincere in their appreciation of the gift, from my point of view I give gifts so that people I care about will enjoy what I have given, not so that I receive gratitude from them.

So if she is withholding the gifts due to the first reason (absolutely not thanks) then that is fair enough, however if she is doing so because she got a phone call rather than a card then I think she is being unreasonable.

[tartanwiz]

purplefish - I'm a middle aged man and when I open doors for people and they don't thank me I say to them sarcastically 'yeah, you're welcome' or 'don't mention it'.

[purplefish]

I'll have to try that :o) hehe