Please and thank you can go a long way. Our manners make an impression (both good and bad) and what we do will be emulated by our children. I used to have to prompt my daughter to say thank you and remind her to say please, but just yesterday we went to the bank and she walked right up to the counter and said, “please may I have a sticker?” and when she was given one she said thank you. When we went to the post office she stayed right by my side and the people at the post office gave her stickers too for, “being so good” (and yes she said thank you). It helps that she is adorable too, but cute kids with bad manners seem less cute and manners definitely enhance one’s image. It’s awfully nice when things which you have been reinforcing finally click and start to happen all on their own. When we got home she even took her laundry up and put it away in the correct drawers (she is three and no this wasn’t a dream). It makes us wonder if a three year old can demonstrate manners like this why can’t everyone? When did we fail each other and stop reinforcing basic courtesies and common decencies? You pay more attention to yourself when you have kids (or at least you should), but even without that extra incentive you notice whether consciously or not when people are polite and something in you appreciates it. Maybe we all just need stickers to remind us, but good manners really can have rewards of their own. They can break down tensions, open doors (both literally and metaphorically), and simply create better atmospheres around us. A three year old saying please and thank you offers hope that those courtesies will not be forgotten, but we all have a responsibility to make them the norm and not the exception which deserves stickers.