Politeness

With children, things can be quite the opposite of what one would naturally think. My first learning experience of this was when Jack was a newborn. Typically, if one was REALLY, REALLY sleepy, one would pass out of exhaustion the moment one's head hit the pillow. However, with newborns, the opposite will happen. If you over-stimulate a newborn (and some kids too), they will NOT sleep. They will cry and cry and cry because they are so tired, but they will not sleep. You may be able to rock or bounce them to sleep for a brief period, but they will usually wake back up, which will make it 10X's harder to get them back to sleep. It's a vicious, vicious cycle that repeats itself until they finally go to sleep at 5AM and then wake-up w/ a big ol' giggly smile at 6AM while your still in bed pleading with God to let them "catch-up" on their sleep for the next 48 hours.
There are many, many, many others, but I'll move on to my main topic, politeness. My oh-so-intelligent husband has brought numerous creative ideas to our marriage with the most recent being, Supernanny. Jack had started to hit the "terrible-two's" so chunk mentioned getting one those "911" books and watching the shows. We've been reading and watching the shows. I usually watch one episode each night. It's amazing the impact this lady's "common sense" techniques have impacted our lives. One amazing value/"house rule" consistently mentioned is politeness. Both giving and receiving between families. When you ask something of your child, you should say please and thank you. For example, "come over here please," get in your chair please," and if your child HATES certain things, be especially sure to tell them "thank you for letting me brush your teeth," thank you for letting me change your diaper." Of course, also thanking them for good things too (even if it's something they love to do because in the end their doing something you ask of them, so thank them!). The shocking part of this is when Jack is whining because he wants something...for example, "MILK! MILK! MMMMIIIILLLLKKKK!" I respond with "say milk please." He stops the whining and in a nice, sweet voice, he says "milk pwease." Naturally, I would have imagined if I tell a whining child to repeat his request w/ a polite word, that he would get even more frustrated. But it does just the opposite, it makes him appreciate what is being given to him. This morning, Chunk cut up fruit for the boys and Jack said, "dank you da-da."  He's finally starting to be polite on his own! It's just so sweet to hear that from a 2 year old. He's been doing this a lot recently. One funny story is from about a month ago, when he 9X's out of 10 would not say anything on his own. He found a sucker on top of my dresser and started jumping up and down saying "SUCKAR PWEASE! SUCKAR PWEASE! SUCKAR PWEASE! As we've heard time and time  again, they understand far more than we give them credit for; we just have to learn how to get it out of them. :)
I've even noticed both Chunk and I even saying please when we ask something of each other.
Note to Parents: If you don't watch Supernanny, DO IT! If it's not applicable to you now, who cares, watch it anyway. Her book even has a section on 0-6 mths! So it can apply to all parents! :)