How to raise a polite child?

Being polite means showing others that you respect them as much as you respect yourself. A child who is polite to adults is a child who is polite to himself. Politeness and obedience are very different concepts! Politeness includes a set of rules observed in society, which are introduced to the child gradually: his politeness depends on his age and degree of maturity.

• Politeness should not be the result of “training”, it is the result of learning the rules of life in society.
• A person should be polite both at home and outside the home, but the rules will be different.
• Family and friendship gatherings, as well as visits to guests, offer many opportunities to apply the rules of good manners.
• At school, too, the child is constantly practicing politeness.
• In order to understand that a spoken word can hurt or offend other people, even if without any bad intentions, a certain level of psychological maturity must be reached.
• But even without reaching this level of maturity, a child can be proud that he is “so good” because he has some experience, he has already felt and realized that if you are polite, people treat you better and are more willing to comply with your requests.
• He discovers the importance of the words “thank you” and “please,” and that is often the first lesson in politeness.

At one year of age or even earlier, when parting with someone, a child learns the rules of social life by waving goodbye (“goodbye!”) or babbling “bye-bye.

“Hello” and “goodbye” are milestones that signify meeting and parting for the baby.

In the second year of life and around age three (sometimes a little later), in what is called the “age of systematic rejection,” it happens that you insist that your child say hello, but you don’t get anywhere with it. This behavior is normal at this age.

In order that the child learns a model of correct behavior in society, so that this model is “imprinted” in his consciousness, it is better to let him hear you say hello, than to force him to say hello himself. Even if he is not aware of it, your politeness is good for him, so do to him and in his presence what you expect from him.

• Don’t encourage your baby to kiss someone every now and then, especially strangers.
• Being polite is also learning from a distance: a child is not an adult, it is adults who tend to kiss the baby by the way and inappropriately.

When the child turns three, he will go to kindergarten, and there a professional educator will teach him all sorts of rules of behavior. But do not be surprised that in kindergarten the baby will be more respectful to seniors and more obedient than at home! There are a number of rules that parents need to learn.

• It is necessary that the child at home and felt that he was respected: you can count on reciprocity, of course, only if the kid always polite.
• Even though the relationship between you and a child is always open and friendly (and it should be so), everyone should stay in their place.
• You need to gently correct your baby when he starts talking to you as he does to his peers (which, however, does not mean permission to be impolite to peers!).
• A child is always guided by the relationship between adults and takes the mutual respect between them as a role model.