Table manners and waiting in lines

Dear Good Manners Devotees':

I wanted to let you know that my new book on Table Manners was just published by Good Manners Kids Stuff Press.

It's called Tabletop Tipsters and you can see it over on the right side.

The book is fun for parents and children to read together as they learn their table manners (children) and remember their table manners (parents). The pages of the book are designed to be like placemats (you hold it and open in horizontally) and the characters on them easily explain table manners as they happen before, during and after the meal. You may recognize the characters -- Bailey Puppydog, Sammy Gator, Katie Doll, Danny and Teddy Birthday Bear -- from the populuar Good Manners Kids Stuff good manners placemats. I hope you'll take a look at it. It's available on Amazon right now, and eventually at other online bookstore like Barnes and Noble, and at some Borders.


My manners annoyance that I wanted to share with you today is that people behave badly a lot of the time because they are so unaware of what is going on around them. I was shopping yesterday with the Good Manners Daughters and there were three situations where many of us waited in a line so that we could sort out for the next available cashier. In each of those instances, someone waltzed up and stepped in front of the cashier -- completely ignoring the fact that others had been waiting.

I would hope that such behavior was because the person was unaware -- not because they meant to cut in line. Mistakes happen. But to have it happen three separate times was sort of bizarre. The last time it happened in a teen store -- and let me tell you the teenagers in line behind us had plenty to say about it!

But if we are so aborbed in ourselves, that's not so good, either. On a manners-themed rant, it's just rude and selfish to not look out for others, to not think about others in addition to yourself. But on a bigger-world-universe-themed rant, just imagine what you are missing out on when you aren't paying attention to experiences or people around you.

Regardless, next time you're shopping, at the very least you can make your tired fellow shoppers' day if you just look around you and make sure you're not cutting in line!

Leslie