Thursday’s Thoughts – Thank-you Notes
One of Stop Lookin’ Get Cookin’s sponsors is an excellent magazine that I have read for several years now periodically. The only reason I’m not an avid reader is that it’s a little hard to come by in my neck of the woods but recently they added an online version for everyone to read. Now, I’m still a paper, magazine or book in my hand girl, but when something good is out there and it’s only available online, I will read it there.
Coulee Parenting Connection is a free, family focused magazine based out of La Crosse, Wisconsin with 12,000 copies in circulation. They have won several national awards and after you read it, you will know why. Their ads are mainly for the greater La Crosse area but the majority of their articles are written with any parent in mind in any part of the country. And isn’t the little boy on the front cover just the cutest thing? Doesn’t he just make you smile and know the cheerful holiday season is here? I just want to pinch his cheeks!
This month had several articles that interested me. The one that caught my attention the most, Merci, Muchas Gracias, Dankeschon, discusses how Kirsetin Morello, the author, gets her kids to write thank-you cards. With the holidays coming up and gifts being exchanged, it’s only right to properly thank those that did the giving.
I’m guilty myself of not writing thank-you notes. I should be ashamed considering my mom did teach me how to write them when I was younger. And I’m guilty of not making my kids write them all of the time too. So how is the gift giver supposed to know you even received the gift (if they were not able to give it in person) if you don’t thank them for it?
Back in the “old” days we had three options for thanking the gift giver – in person, by phone or by mail. My thoughts are if the gift giver is present when you open/receive your gift, you can say “thank you” at that time and you are off the hook of anything further. If the gift giver is not present, then a proper thank you is needed.
As technology evolves so are the options of thanking someone for a gift. In person, by phone or by mail are still very good options but so is a short email, a text or a facebook message. The author of this article provides suggestions to you as the parent to help your child with written thank-yous and I love that she has used bribery to get them done. That means I’m not the only parent in the world to bribe their children.
So as this holiday season comes and goes, think about adding “writing thank-you notes or texts or emails” to your family traditions. I just put it on my To-Do List.
Oh – and check out the blurb about my blog on page 53 as well as the rest of the issue. They have some good stuff in there!
Wife, mom, business owner, volunteer, lover of chocolate, procrastinator of cleaning, experiencing life in my 40’s and not putting off to tomorrow what I’ve wanted to do for a long time. I stop lookin’ and get cookin’ in all areas of life.
I used to make my kids write thank-you notes. Sometimes I bought pre-made notes but usually I had blank notes that they were expected to decorate. They did not get the gift until the note was written. They could write pretty much what they wanted and the note’s decor was not judged.
But once they became teens, I no longer forced it. I figured it was now their responsibility. I’d hoped that raising them to do it would get them to naturally evolve into people that do it. But, alas, no. Well, maybe when they get older they will go back to their early lessons.