Parenting Article about Writing Thank You Notes

Is it necessary for a child to write thank you notes? It depends. Did your ten-year-old receive a gift from their sister or grandma who they see everyday? In my opinion if your child receives presents for their birthday or for Christmas from close relatives, in their presence, and the gift is under ten dollars then it is not mandatory to write a note as long as they say "Thank you." However, it would be nice if your child wrote a thank you note to Grandma even if she lives with you. You should teach your child to write thank you notes. This is part of teaching your child about good manners. They should be grateful for gifts. Children, especially girls, who are taught to write thank you notes when they are young, are more likely to do so when they are older.

For special occasions, like a Confirmation or a Bar Mistfa, your child should write thank you notes to every person or each family who attends the ceremony, whether your child receives a gift or not. If a person takes time out of their day to be there for your child on this special day it should be noted. It might take time to write the notes, but your child can spilt up the writing task. Fifty notes can be done over five days.

Special occasions aside let us be practical. If you have a six-year-old and you gave them a birthday party where forty classmates showed up, it could be a daunting task for a young child to write that many individual thank you notes. Plus, you will need to find the addresses of all the classmates and mail them out. You could have your child write four notes a day for ten days and then give the notes out at school. But let us face it, at that age the thank you is really for the parent. And who knows if their friend will deliver the note to their parent. If you are in a time crunch and you have emails of all the students in the class you can have your daughter draw a picture of her birthday party. Scan this in the computer. Each afternoon for ten days have her type a simple note underneath the picture to each child. Sample: Evan, Thank you for the book on fairies. Lisa.

For young children you can write out on a paper what they want to say, first. When your child becomes a teenager you should not press the matter of having them write thank you notes for Christmas and birthday gifts that cost twenty-five dollars and under. The reason being most of their friends will not get upset if they do not receive a thank you note. Plus, they are old enough now to be responsible for their own actions on the matter. If they do not write a thank you note to Grandma or Uncle Harry in Florida your child might learn they might not get a gift from them next year. Sometimes a child needs to learn what will happen if they do not do something.