It All Starts with Saying "Thank You"

I know we all teach our children to say "please" and "thank you".  

But are they really thankful, or do they say it out of obligation?

I think being thankful begins as the rote saying of "thank you" and somewhere along the line turns into genuine thankfulness.   As our children grow older they naturally look outside of themselves.   My six year old might LOVE  the trip to the store to get a Lego set and have dad build it with him that day and he will say thank you.  My ten year old daughter, however, understands the personal commitment that went into that outing and her thanks are more genuine. 

Nothing saddens me more than to do something for a group  (of children - who are old enough to know to say "thank you" - in particular) and not have one child say thank you.  This has happened to me recently, and it is disheartening.  It seems as if children are just TOO BUSY to stop and say thank you.  We should NEVER be too busy to express our thanks or appreciation!     

Here are ways we try to teach our children to be thankful in our home... again, remember it starts out as a rote expression of thanks, which hopefully leads into genuine thanks.


Read the rest of the post today at Three Thinking Mothers... where this week we are talking about inspiring thankfulness in others.