(no subject)

[the_rck]

I finally got Cordelia to start in on the thank you notes for her birthday. It's been more than a month since the party, so it's past time. She has nine notes to write and has done three. We should have enough stamps because two of the notes can be hand delivered.

Thank you notes are difficult for me. I never did them growing up. My mother didn't consider them important. She says that thank you notes to family are insulting because they imply that you're not really close. Scott's family views thank you notes differently, and there's been some culture shock there. They don't, so far as I can tell, expect notes when they were there to see the gift opened, but that may simply be that they've gotten used to my not providing them. I don't know.

Cordelia had a friend over yesterday. It was supposed to be her friend and her friend's brother, but the brother had something else going on and couldn't come after all. Cordelia and her friend and a neighborhood girl set up a table on the front lawn and tried to sell the bracelets Cordelia has been making (they want to raise money for Oxfam), but not many people come by, so I don't think they sold even one. Our street is out of the way for most people.

Cordelia has asked if she can quite softball. We've said no. We paid $100 for the season, and it's a bad precedent to let her sign up for things and then quit. Two months ago, whenI asked her if she wanted to play, she said of course she did. I think she dislikes the bite practices take out of her Sunday evenings, and games will take still more time.

Comments

[retsuko]

I think it's great that you're having Cordelia write thank-you notes. It's a good habit for her to get into for the times when she starts applying to jobs (I've had several recruiters/managers tell me that the handwritten thank-you's they received after the interview were the deciding factor in hiring someone) and for cultivating generosity. I love getting thank-you notes from friends and family, and I think it means more than your in-laws are letting on.

[the_rck]

I'm really bad about thank you notes, and I want Cordelia to learn better than I did.

I just hope we have enough stamps left. I need one for a Medicare thing that has to go out in the next couple of days. I think Cordelia only has one note left that needs mailing. I hope I'm not miscounting.

[kyrielle]

Thank you notes are awesome and are really good for bringing a smile - I wasn't consistently taught to do them, but I am trying to do better now with the boys.

I...have never heard of them being insulting. Unimportant to some people, yes. Insulting, no. I have learned something new, to consider that reaction is possible!

[the_rck]

I never learned how to write thank you notes. I think it's a real lack in my education. I have to think carefully to remember to do them. Mostly, with my father and my grandmother, I call to say thank you. Grandma can't read a thank you note any longer, so a call is better.

Cordelia writing thank you notes to my mother never comes up because they never give her presents.

[leorising1959.livejournal.com]

My 2 cents, and worth every penny: Our family didn't do thank you letters either. Later in life, though, I decided to reform myself. I would write lovely thank-yous for my birthday and Christmas gifts. The people who received them thought I was nuts. I stopped bothering.

*shrug*

[the_rck]

I feel like it's important to acknowledge gifts if the giver wasn't there to see me open it. For Cordelia, I make her do notes for her friends who came to her birthday party, too. I know kids like to get mail.