British manners

[Mary Ann <macloudt@yahoo.co.uk>]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "alora <chrisnlorrie at y...>" 

> OKay, I don't want to open a can of worms here, far from it.  WHy 
is 
> it that most British children have such good manners

<snip>

> My question is, so what do we do about it?  Do Americans need 
> etiquette lessons?  Do the British think we are all arrogant ill 
> mannered slobs? ;)

I'm a meals supervisor at my kids' school, Alora, and if you saw the 
state of the floor after all the kids had finished eating you'd think 
twice about the "good manners" bit!  Seriously, I'm a Dutch-Canadian 
who's lived in England for almost 8 years, and I don't see much of a 
difference between English and Canadian kids.  Most of the kids are 
lovely, a few are pains in the backside, and even fewer are jailbait, 
and I wouldn't think that my really scientific statistical 
analysis ;) would be any different for kids in North America.  I've 
got a good set of lungs and am pretty strict with my own kids and the 
kids at school, but I also joke around with them and enjoy being with 
them.  When I first started this job many of the kids came right up 
to me and started talking to me; okay, my accent is a novelty for 
them, but they approached me rather than the other way around.  In 
other words, I don't see them as being more reserved (some of the 
parents are, but that's another matter).  And I don't think that 
there's that much of a materialistic difference nowadays between 
North American and British kids.  They're spoiled rotten here as 
well...

Ill-mannered Americans?  Nah, we have enough ill-mannered Brits, 
thanks!

Mary Ann :)