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Sunday 28 December 2014

Thanks



(Coo, two posts in one day!)

When I was a little girl my Mother told me that a gift wasn’t really mine until I had said thank you PROPERLY.  Saying thank you properly, according to Mother meant you either thanked somebody face to face or you wrote a letter.  A phone call was not enough.

I was never wholly convinced by this theory.  I overheard other grown-ups thanking Mother for my letters and saying that they could never persuade their children to write.  Then later I would hear Mother muttering that other people didn’t make their children write.  One year I suggested I sent back a gift which I didn’t want anyway to save myself the bother of writing.  The memory of the ensuing explosion lives with me to this day.

However, I still place a very high priority on saying thank you but these days I sometimes use the phone.  Sometimes though it is nice to sit down and write a short note.

This year I have actually managed to make my thank you cards as well as write them.  I hope the recipients enjoy receiving them.


Because I enjoyed making them far more than I enjoyed writing those letters when I was a child.

2 comments:

  1. Well done. I had this conversation with my Aunt the other day who gets terribly upset that she never gets a thank you for gifts she sends to various family members. I've tried to explain it's the sign of the times but she still takes it to heart so good on you for keeping thank you alive x

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  2. I make sure I thank properly people who are older than me. For those who are younger it's a little more problematic as they're not sure what it's about. However, if a child makes me something that always merits a written thank you as I think that they should understand the pleasure that receiving a thank you gives, if you see what I mean!

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