manners

I firmly believe in children respecting their elders and have been diligently encouraging Nathan to mind his manners by saying Please and Thank You, as well as referring to adults as Sir and Mam. He has caught on to the Thank You term very well and says it often, even unprompted. Please, seems to be harder for him to grasp and I found him asking for things and following the request with, "Now." After several times of this and me trying to explain to him that he wasn't to say that to me and that it wan't nice, it occurred to me that he is only saying to me what he hears. I realized I am good at saying Thank you to Lee and Nathan but I don't say Please very often. What an eye opener! Not only that but when I really want Nathan to do something quickly, I was following my request with, 'Now." Children learn by example so obviously I'm the one that has to fix my manners before I can effectively teach him. And actually he will repeat more of what I do than what I suggest him do. I'm thankful that my heart was open to God's conviction of this problem and am trying to rectify the situation by asking him to do things prempted with Please. I realized he will still know I am serious even when saying Please rather than Now, by my consistency with following up with discipline if he doesn't complete the task. How awesome I can be both firm and polite!
A few days ago when I asked Nathan a question, he replied, "No Sir." I was so impressed that he remembered this all on his own and understanding that he doesn't have a grasp on gender, I simply smiled and said, "Thank you, son."
That's my Boy!!