General Chat

Do your children/grandchildren, nieces and nephews send a thank you for presents? By any medium?

Do you write thank you letters for gifts?

I was reading a piece in the paper mourning the loss of courtesy in replying to messages, applications, phone calls etc and just wondered.

In a word, no, they don't...

Hello Ann, yes I send thank you cards or emails and so do most of my family,some of the younger ones do so on FB.

I think a lot of people no longer write thank you letters but they will text ,email or use FB.

Daughter has 3 sons aged 19,21 and 23 all live away from home. At Christmas the younger two e mailed thank you notes within a week. after a month I was speaking to daughter by e mail and mentioned I had not heard from eldest and his fiancee (both had cheques for christmas plus several small gifts. Within an hour I had a text from eldest (he was at work) with his thanks. Two great nieces were sent presents, they live in London. One is usually quick to thank us (she is 21 and has two babies, not married), the other is married with two children and usually I have to ask her if she has received the parcel (I do this because I worry about post deliveries in London) she usually does thank us then. Little great niece is 10 and will write a thank you e mail when she visits her Nana (My sister) who will encourage her. Our two youngest grandchildren wrote thank you letters (snail mail) 2 weeks after christmas. Our children were taught to thank people and they have passed it on to their children. Plus I have made it clear in the past (stroppy Nana/Aunt) that no thank you, no cheque next time.

Communication is so easy nowadays that they really have no excuse. I don't mind e mail, text or letter but I do expect something. :-D Oh and I did send them thank you e mails and, in the case of one of them a thank you letter.

I have 8 grandchildren and out of the 8 only 5 ever say thank you
they always phone and say thanks nan and grandad .
The other three never say thank you , so i stopped sending them money or gifts i would'nt mind but they are'nt babies, the youngest is 16 yrs and the eldest 21yrs .
Hazelx

Sometimes mine do & sometimes they don't. I will stop giving gifts to grandchildren when they start work - is that mean?
Phyll

I have 2 gchildren - both in their twenties and still have some cards and letters they wrote when little (more from the girl than the boy). They ring to say thank you, never miss. I have sent cards for various occasions to both and have had a reply.

If I did not, I would think twice I am sure. They, in turn, remember ours.

yes they do Ann.
my daughter and son are also starting to teach their own children age 3 and 17m manners, my grandson age three has lovely manners and my granddaughter says thanks(she is not talking properly yet)
my children were taught manners from an early age,and always thank us for gifts or any help they receive.x :-D

It is nice that so many of you say that you do get thanked. Young people today don't always get encouragement from their elders. Look how many apply for jobs and don't even get an acknowledgement.

I hate bad manners, i find myself where ever i am always butting in and will sarcastically say please or thankyou which ever the situation is, i have a ex sister in law and she is terrible, when i handed the christmas presents or anythin else she says nothing, one good thing in our childhood was manners, i feel the teenagers have none what so ever, i think its sad the way things are, we all know on here i cant spell , but i dont feel the teacher corrects there grammer properly, example worser catched it ect. :-D

my son will telephone people or go visit, i always make him ring if i no were not going to see the person, as its only good manners, mind he is a good littleman, and will say please and thankyou, stright away, if the person is there

Well done stray. Hopefully what he learns from you will stick with him. I love to hear little ones when they say please and thank you without prompting. :-)

I usually get a phone call or sometimes an e-mail. I was taught that if you had good manners you could go anywhere and mix with anybody without a problem!!

Mmmm maybe!

Hiya Wendy. You OK?

Grandson is encouraged to say thank you, he doesnt really know what for...lolol but daughter always sends thank you cards or telephones family and our friends who send little one money or gifts.

Ours had to eat with their forks not as a shovel, leave their cutlery at 6 o/c on their plates and ask to be excused from the table. Open doors for people older than them, offer seats, say please and thankyou.

Sue x

I drummed it into my 3 kids when they were young to always write thankyou letters and now they're adults they do it automatically. Sometimes it was a bit of a battle when they were young, but it's paid off. Just plain good manners in my opinion.

I was brought up to write thankyou letters.Every Christmas one of my presents would be a set of Notelets .Boxing day I would be writing mt thankyou notes.My children always sent thankyou letters .They are now in their mid/late twenties and I still make sure they say thankyou lol.Not that I need to .But it is one of my 'things'.I think it is just so rude not to thank someone for a gift.I am a stickler for good manners. :-D :-D

Dont know if courtesy is a thing of the past, but nostalgia is

:-D

*slap for Eldrick* that was awful :-P

My nephews are very good at saying thank you, they always have been, as is my goddaughter. Even before they could write properly their mum would get them to draw something and she'd help them write their name underneath as a way of saying thank you. Now they are older they phone me to say thank you and often drop a note too, or text me.

I was very disappointed with a cousin's daughter who got married last October and STILL hasn't acknowledged the gift, sent a wedding photograph - nothing. As I was talking to my cousin last week I thought I'd just let slip that my elderly mum is SO looking forward to receiving a few photos, but was saying doesn't the mail from Australia take an age!!! ;-)
Personally I'm disgusted that someone hasn't thanked us for a wedding gift....in this day and age when there's the choice of FB, e.mail, letter, phone, text etc etc etc it's easier to communicate now than ever it was!
But I suppose I'm considered old fashioned. :-0

Karen