– Jennifer Lehr recently wrote in the Wall Street Journal that when parents do things like reminding their children to say thank you, they are encouraging their compliance and taking away their autonomy. “Rubbish!,” writes Emma Jenner in the Huffington Post. Indeed, this kind of advice may not be the best. According to Jenner, half of the children she sees speak in a disrespectful manner to their parents, are poorly behaved and can’t sit through a meal without a tablet or phone for entertainment.

– There actually are plenty of opportunities to teach our kids that their feelings count, without allowing them poor manners. Young children need to learn that they have to follow a few basic rules that are non-negotiable and parents have to teach their children how to carry themselves in society. Parents who remind their children to be polite are not raising them to be compliant, they are teaching them how to behave properly in the world in which they were born.

Thank You! (Wikimedia Commons)

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