Showing Good Manners

Last week we went to Disney World and I am always amazed at the manners of some people. Mostly they are good manners but maybe due to the excitement, sometimes people are extremely rude.

For example, we were getting on the ferry to the Magic Kingdom and one man pushes past me with a young boy and says, “Just push through her, catch up with the others!” All I could think of was this young boy is going to learn to that it is okay to push people to get where you want to and that this dad is showing this by example!

On one ride, an older man with two teens tried to cut in front of us. I stared down one of the teens who got back in line but the man refused to get behind us. Eventually when he realized the 2 teens wouldn’t join him, he moved back where he belonged. These teens were going to learn from his example that you didn’t have to stay in your place in line if you want to cut ahead of people and this could cause them problems in the future.

I decided that instead of noticing bad manners, I was going to look for examples of good manners.

We were in line behind a large group of teenagers and behind us was an older woman in a scooter and another lady. We didn’t realize they were part of the group in front until one woman asked if we would mind getting in front of the group so they could all be together. They even told the group to let us go ahead. They didn’t ask if they could cut in front of us but instead wanted us to go first! I thought that was a great way to show teens how to be polite!

When we were going in one of the parks, we were waiting to get onto a tram from the parking lot and there was a huge crowd. One couple insisted we go in front of them because we had a better chance of getting on then their huge group. What a great example to show the young children in that group.

We tried to be extra courteous to people because we knew that many were excited to be there and that this may be their first visit. Others may have a limited amount of time and trying to fit everything in during that time. By understanding what may motivate people to have bad manners, helps to tolerate them without getting angry.

What latest good manners have you encountered? Please share.