Thank You Notes Teaching Middot
We drove our youngest to camp yesterday. The night before he left he finished the last of his thank you notes for his March Bar mitzvah.
I was struck, as I have been, as each of my three kids have gone through this Emily Post exercise in American etiquette, just how this formality can deepen the values we hope out kids learn as B’nai Mitzvah.
With each of my kids I laid out the basic rules. The first is that no one owed them a gift. The specific gift needed to be acknowledged or commented on. The second was that each gift was given because of a relationship. The note needed to acknowledge the relationship which caused the gift giving.
It’s easy for a kid, who may be getting large cash gifts from friends or relatives with deep pockets, to be less than appreciative of a small gift from a little old lady on a fixed income. I would mention that this gift was proportionally a huge gift on the part of the giver.
I felt that my message was getting through my son would ask me before he began a note, “Tell me about _____. How do we know them?” I could then explain how _______ was friendly with my parents when they were a young married couple, or was my mother-in-law’s favorite cousin, or was the person who gave his his favorite baby toy.
As my son has slogged through the process, which has been often difficult for him, he was rewarded by the large number of people who have mentioned that unlike most Bar-Mitzvah thank you notes which get tossed in the trash as soon as they are read, my son’s notes have been kept. The notes have given my son an additional opportunity to get to know the circle of people who surround our family. They have also given our circle the opportunity to see our kid for who he is in his glorious quirkiness.
–Sarah Jacobs
3 comments on “Thank You Notes Teaching Middot”
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Thank you. I’m having my kids read your post. You said what I’ve been trying to tell them forever. It’s so true, the kindness of a personal note always makes the receiver’s day.
What a beautiful and important lesson you gave your children. You are so right that the expression of thanks for gifts is so often perfunctory and done with little feeling. Young teens are just eager to ‘get through it.’ The notion that the process should deepen the relationships, more importantly, that our children should forge their own relationships with the gift-giving friends and family by understanding how these people are in the family ‘circle,’ will last for a lifetime. When they next get a wedding gift from Cousin Molly they may remember who she is and why we stayed so connected with Grandma’s cousin. I was very moved by your story.
Thank you – I love your basic rules! Sounds like you are raising wonderful children.