It's Not Being Polite, It's Being Who They Are

So something has been niggling at the corner of my brain since yesterday afternoon when I picked up my two youngest from a birthday party. It was the first birthday party I have ever dropped them off and not stayed. I know! I've never done that. Ever. I've always stayed to talk with the other parents and keep an eye on my kiddos. But, they're getting older and I trusted the environment so I felt okay about letting them go alone, especially since they were surrounded by people who have become a part of my surrogate family.

When I picked them up yesterday, one of the other moms came up to me. I'd never seen this woman so when she came stalking up to me, I almost went into bitch mode expecting her to start some shit. For all I knew, one of my boys had made her kid cry or something. Not that I have boys who do that, but I'd never left them alone at a party so I prepared for the worst and hoped for the best. Color me surprised when she started raving about my middle son who gave up his seat at the table for her daughter. I wasn't surprised he had given up his seat. I was surprised at how floored this woman was by it. She went on and on and on... that I honestly though this was going to happen:

And then she asked me: how do you do it? How you teach boys to be polite? I can't even make my son not hit a girl.  And then I gave her this face:

After giving her that face for a good five to ten seconds (partly because she wants to make him polite and he hits girls), I told her I didn't know how I taught the boys how to be polite. Seriously, I don't. I can't explain our lifestyle. Yes, I taught the boys how to say please and thank you, open doors and pull out chairs for girls. But their politeness isn't something I taught them or make them do. Their father and I set examples when they were young and they picked up on it. The fact that my Seany insisted the girl have his chair, now that blew me away. Can you say proud mama moment?

But it was crazy, it was like she wanted me to write out a step by step instruction booklet on how to treat others. I mean, I could...a guide to treating people right and not dealing with their bitchassness either...hmm...

So anyway, all that has been niggling at the corner of my mind. When did we become a society that being polite, courteous, mindful, etc is the exception and not the norm? Why was this woman so surprised by my son's normal behavior? Why wasn't she baffled at the grown ass men who weren't giving up their seats for the moms juggling babies in one arm and a toddler on the other? Why was that behavior accepted as the norm and not the exception?

Either way, my sons are growing up to be the kind of young men I've always been proud of.