Five Magical Sayings

This morning my kids wanted to take the public bus to their before school program.  This was fine with me because it was a beautiful day and when we take the bus I am able to walk back home.  This is a great work out for me, I get exercise and time for myself before I get a jump on the day.  The kids enjoy riding the public bus which is really strange to me since they ride a school bus everyday twice a day.  It must be a completely different feeling that I don’t understand.

For the most part my kids are pretty good but of course they are kids so they can get out of hand at times.  My husband and I always seem to get compliments on how they act especially in public and specifically when we go out to dinner.  We would be sitting at a table next to other children who were basically coming unglued and crawling all over the fixtures. These parents and other patrons would come over to comment on how well behaved our children were; I always thought that they were crazy or missing something.  But for the most part I do have good kids.  And this was very evident this morning. 

We rode the bus and as we were exiting I had my children get off in front of me.  Each one of them thanked the bus driver and told him to have a nice day.  He was shocked to say the least.  He actually stopped me to tell me that he was very impressed by how polite they were and that it made his day when we rode his bus.  I had a proud mommy moment that lasted the whole morning.  

I really shouldn’t be too surprised though because I have always taught my children since they were little that there were magical words and sayings that they should use, and I made sure that they used them often. After teaching my children these sayings I realized that these sayings were becoming obsolete and rarely used.  This made for very interesting experiences with my children.

1. THANK YOU - A truly important saying but sometimes forgotten.  I remember one day my children were holding open a door for some people to walk through.  Absolutely no one said anything to them so they yelled after everyone, “YOUR WELCOME!”  This made some of them feel really silly a couple of people apologized and some said thank you.  This was a backwards way of getting a response, it was truly funny, and I loved every minute of it.   
2. YOU’RE WELCOME – I rarely hear the words “you are welcome” anymore.  Most people respond with “Uh huh” or “No, Thank you.” I really did not realize this until my kids pointed it out to me.  They were curious and said, “I thought you were supposed to say you’re welcome after someone says thank you to you.”  So of course I told them they were right.  Then they let me know that no one really says that.  So I listened and paid attention to conversations and my children were right most people do not say you’re welcome back.
3. SORRY – Apologizing is so important especially if you did something wrong.  This is also another saying that my children think is not used enough.This is especially true during their sporting events.  My kids are notorious for knocking someone out (not in a bullying fashion but more of in the play of the game) from the other team and helping them up while apologizing and making sure that they are okay.  They have also taught their teammates to do the same which is wonderful.
4. EXCUSE ME - This was one of the most difficult ones for my children to learn.  They would yell, “Excuse me” all the time when I was on the phone. It was polite and all but there was no pause between the “excuse me” and what they had to say.  It was priceless.  At least they say it often but they still have problems especially when I am on the phone.  But they use it really well when they burp and fart just because they think it’s hilarious.
5. I LOVE YOU – This was more important for me to say to them.  I want them to know that I do love them and I want them to hear it often.  With a hectic schedule things get forgotten but now my children make sure to tell me that they love me before they go to bed.  That is definitely a saying that is magically and one never gets tired of hearing from their kids.

Sometimes it really is the little things that you do that are impacting to a person. A simple Thank You, Your Welcome, Sorry, Excuse Me and I Love You can have a profound effect on a person and can change their frown to a smile their bad day to a good one.