MANNERS are “the magic key” in life, but many children miss out on the basics as parents do not teach them, author and etiquette expert Patsy Rowe says.

Ms Rowe, who today releases her book, Manners Magic for Children, says failing to learn manners leaves children isolated.

“I think it’s almost cruel not to teach children manners,” she says. “Being the smartest kid in the class or the best athlete in the school are achievements to be proud of, but not if the teachers and coaches find you rude and your classmates and their parents dislike you.

“It’s stressful for children if they don’t know why the others don’t like them.”

Ms Rowe says parents need to be responsible for teaching children manners from an early age. “But some parents don’t know good manners to pass on, some thought it wasn’t important, some thought their children would absorb good manners by osmosis and some thought their children would somehow magically turn into polite adults. You can’t expect children to know these things if they haven’t been taught,” she says.

Bridgewater mother Libby Tweeddale started teaching children Jack, 11, Isobel, 9, and Eleanor, 5, manners when they were learning to talk.

“It’s never too early to start teaching manners,” she says. “

Ms Tweeddale says using good manners helps her children make friends.

“My kids get upset when kids at school are rude and don’t use their manners. The kids that don’t have nice manners are the ones who push and bully in the playground. No one likes them.”

Read more…AdelaideNow… Never too young to learn manners

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