Yesterday we sat the twins down,
duct-taped them to chairs at Taserpoint and politely asked them to complete their birthday thank you notes.
Here are some excerpts:
"Thank you for Wii Music. It's musical."
"Thanks for the presents. Now I have something to do."
So, was it worth it?
ReplyDeleteLittle Angels ( at the moment ) ; I`ve got two , great niece and nephew , 5 and 3 .
ReplyDeleteA great habit to start at a young age. I know I shouldn't be angry and actually I am not. I am disgusted to be honest. I sent a Wedding Gift to the stepdaughter of a friend of mine who got married last year (May). Not only did I never get a thank you note (it was a generous gift considering I wasn't invited to the wedding), it took them six months to deposit/cash/whatever the check. Forgive me if I am rude, or out of line or plain wrong. I think a thank you note is a MUST for a Wedding Gift. I know they technically have a year; but my friend, the step-dad, said don't hold your breathe. She is not sending out any. Am I crazy or is that just rude. Glad you had your kids write those notes, Ibee. Thank goodness they now have something to do since they got the presents. Did they get anything Artisan?
ReplyDeleteThat's a great habit to teach. My sister would never let her kids play with the presents or use them until they wrote a thank you. That was great motivation!
ReplyDeleteAnd I have gone to two weddings where I have not received a thank you note. I think that is so awful.
Thanks for your posts. They make my day.
Yep, that's the way to do it --- get the habit into their heads, even if it does take duct tape and tasers! My parents used to make all 3 of us kids write thank yous for every box of cookies or whatever the women who worked at the dept. store we had sent home to us. They didn't have tasers back then, but my dad was 6'4" and carried a flyback paddle!
ReplyDeleteI remember having to sit down after my Bar Mitzvah and begrudgingly write out thank you notes for everyone who came (with no TV until I had written my allotment for the day).
ReplyDeleteMy enthusiasm parallelled the twins'.
I remember one Christmas where my brother got an absolutely hideous gift--and he said his thanks with appropriate references to the lack of enthusiasm he had for same. The old man, later took us aside and made it real clear, as only a son of the Great Depression could, that when you are given a gift--You say Thank You and nothing but Thank You. Same guy told me that when someone is making you eat a bunch of crap, you don't have to say grace before the meal. Ah the legacy I have passed to my own children.
ReplyDeleteDEAR DR. GRUMPY,
ReplyDeleteTHANK YOU FOR THE GREAT BLOG POST. NOW I HAVE SOMETHING TO READ TODAY.
SINCERELY,
MOOSE
Anon, They DO NOT technically have a year. That's a myth. Thank you notes should be written promptly. People took the time to shop, took the care to select something, and took the time to deliver it/send it. The least the recipient can do is spend 10 minutes writing a nice thank you note.
ReplyDeleteMy sister wrote all of her yet unwritten ones on the plane to her honeymoon so neither she nor I have any patience for people who say they are just too busy with wedding stuff to write them. She left for her honeymoon two days after her wedding so all gifts received at the wedding were included in that batch.
Her 4 year old dictates thank you's to her then signs and colors on them. Her 6 year old writes his own. They are precious!
Writing thank you notes were the rule for the day when i was a kid. if the gift was a christmas gift, the note had to be written by new years day. If it was a birthday, we had one week. Its such a habit that I dont really enjoy my gifts until they are properly thanked! Thanks MOM!
ReplyDeleteI let my kids call to say thank you to relatives that send gifts. If they've said thank-you in person I don't require them to send cards. However, they are required to say thank-you one way or another.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a kid, we had to write the notes before we could play with the toy/etc. Did you make the kids rewrite them?
ReplyDeleteFirst I love the idea of holding presents hostage until the thank you card is done. I'm going to use that one!
ReplyDeleteI am now famous for writing thank you notes but not mailing them. As well as being late.
All I can say is steroids really mess you up.
But I do have my toddler color a picture on each one. Not her fault if I mail (most of) them out with the Xmas cards...three months later.
And I'm sure I'm on some people's sh*t list as a result. People whose adrenal glands work perfectly all the time and who never deal with steroid withdrawal.
Must be nice.
M
I'm afraid I never did get the hang of forcing kids to write thank you notes. Which might explain my ungrateful snots.
ReplyDeletego dr. dad ... go
ReplyDeletemore parents need to be like you.
Good to know that my parents were not the only ones to use the "duct tape to a chair at taserpoint" routine with thank you notes. If it helps, my brother, who was subjected to this many times, now dutifully writes thank your notes and gets miffed if some one doesn't return the favor.
ReplyDeleteI HATED writing thank-you notes as a kid.
ReplyDeleteWhen my first nephew was born, I basically told my sister that if she ever made him write me thank-you notes, I'd stop buying him presents altogether.
Short and to the point. I like those thank you notes!
ReplyDeleteHere's a tip that works great at our place. Before you let them tackle the presents, get a stack of thank-you cards. Open one...write a thank you note before moving on to the next. It's the old carrot and stick...they happily do it to move on to the next one and no need for the duct tape.
ReplyDeleteHmmm. . . this is all new to me. We never had to send thank you notes and I never saw my parents write out a thank you note either. I never received any thank you notes from other people I gave gifts to, come to think of it, well except for those "Thank you for being a valued customer" junk-mail fliers.
ReplyDeleteIt's not that we weren't thankful for those itchy wool socks from relative x, y, or Z every Christmas. Its just no one really expected some formal written thank you form to be filled out. Maybe this is something learned from working in an office or something? Honestly, it's not something I've never seen done. Usually we just say thanks when they hand us the gift or right after we open it. Sometimes whoever sent the card with cash will call and ask if we got it, and we'll say thanks then-- but I've never had to write out a card thanking everyone for every little thing I received for Christmas in writing.
Honestly I don't expect to be thanked every time I hand over a box of chocolates. At best they'll be eaten, at worst they'll be tossed-- but most likely they'll just be re-gifted.