Home Training

A list of things I wish people agreed with me on:

1. Please and thank you really are the magic words.
   
2. Unless they're wide open, I like to knock on suite doors and expect others to do the same.
   
3. I like to speak to people, and get made fun of for checking in all the time, but asking "how was your day?" is second nature to me. Besides the fact that it's polite and kind, it's the quickest way to find out interesting things about a person. You learn if people are pessimists or optimists, what they find important, or at least they're short term-memory capacity if you consistently ask this simple question and wait for the answer. And it's much more natural (at least to me) than contrived getting to know you questions about family background.
   
4. Hand in hand with the importance of speaking to people is listening and acknowledging that I've heard someone rather than ignoring them. Just because I don't feel as though something applies directly to me, or do not usually have conversation with someone, doesn't mean I get to invalidate what they're saying by pretending I cannot hear it when they are a few feet away and project and enunciate well.
   
5. If I am cooking in my suite, it's not required, but is definitely kind, to ask if anyone wants some. In my world, breakfast is not made and given to neighbors before the people in the room have a chance at the french toast.
6. Along those lines, if taking food that I have not had a hand in preparing, paying for, etc., I try and show gratitude. At the very least by saying hello to everyone who may have had a hand in the purchase and prep (i.e. the people in the suite). A thank you to the cook is also nice. Taking cookies without a hello and walking out is not nice.
   
7. I've always thought gossiping about one's friends was impolite. Or one's something other than friends for that matter.
8. Hypocrisy in general is unkind.
   
9. Carrying on a conversation as though others are not in the room and using pronouns so they don't understand exactly what's happening makes the anti-Sam's-ideal-manners list as well.
   
10. Talking through television and movies because they are not important to you is also not the most considerate thing.
11. Everyone should clean their own hair from the shower drain and take responsibility for their mess in general. Beyond manners, this keeps us from living in a collective pig sty since we have not paid for a cleaning crew.

I'm sure I could offer more explanation as to the source of this list, but that may lead me into some impolite territory of my own. So, I'll let it stand.

Have a nice day.