For anyone familiar with our children, this is kind of hilarious. Here's an excerpt from an email that I get weekly about Karol's development from BabyCenter.
Now that your child is old enough to notice how grown-ups behave and that actions affect other people, he's ready to learn some manners. Start with the very simplest, "please" and "thank you." Role model without demanding compliance. You're likely to make more progress if you heap praise on him when he exhibits good manners than you will by hectoring him when he forgets to say "thank you." You want learning manners to be fun, not a battleground.So now is the time, apparently, to start teaching 'please' and 'thank you.'
Karol is well versed in manners and etiquette well beyond her years, I guess. Not only does she use 'please' and 'thank you,' but she does it in complete sentences ("May I have some more milk please?") and doesn't need much prompting, if at all.
And Patrick's not far behind. He actually picked up 'please' all on his own, probably because he saw his sis getting what she asked for whenever she used it. I'll never forget those precious chubby cheeks when he brought me an empty cup and said "peez?" in that same tone that Karol uses. And now when he asks for "more," simply asking "can you say 'please?'" gets an appropriate response with no hassle. I suspect he'll be doing it all on his own well before his second birthday.
A trick I've started using recently - requiring Karol and Patrick to be polite to each other. This is actually how I approach a lot of conflicts. Fighting over the same toy is a great opportunity to encourage sharing, of course, and manners naturally are a part of that.
So, all that being said, I'm sure I'm a snooty mom for bringing it up at all, but I couldn't resist the opportunity to brag :)
