Politeness and human compassion are disapprearing

I don't force my kids to say "please" or "thank you" or "sorry." But that doesn't mean my kids aren't polite.

In fact, they're more polite than most kids I know. People have commented on their politeness from very early ages. It used to frustrate and infuriate me when a 14-month-old H would genuinely and unprompted tell people "thank you" and instead of replying with the proper "you're welcome" they'd say something like, "Oh, that's so cute!"

B typically lets out a delightful "dank you, dank you, dank you!" over simple things such as a waitress bringing him a chocolate milk.

H most often says "excuse me" when trying to get someone's attention or interrupting a conversation. She tells me she's "sorry" if she accidentally runs into me or whatever.

Don't get me wrong. My kids are kids. There are times when a "thank you" or "please" or whatever would be appropriate and they don't say it. But there are times I forget to say it too. But overall, they're pretty polite and well-mannered.

Yesterday H was, in her words, "slammed to the ground" by as 12 or 13 year old boy. I watched it happen, unable to prevent it. She hadn't moved from where she was standing, out of the way (or so I'd thought) on pavement at a park. The boy knocked her right down, her heading smacking the pavement with a sickening thud! She screamed and the goose egg was nasty. The boy didn't so much as glance back at her, let alone say he was sorry. Neither of his parents who watched the incident apologized either.

Accidents happen. I get that. Except he was 12/13, and it wasn't like H jumped out of no where. Or that there was no where else for the kid to run. Nonetheless, shit happens. Okay. But seriously?! My 3 year old's natural reaction is to apologize if she accidentally hangs on to my neck too hard while riding on my back. My natural reaction is to apologize profusely if one of my children hurts another person, intentionally or not.

And yet neither child nor parents offered up a measly "sorry" as my kid wailed?

What the heck is this world coming to?

I don't believe in insincere manners. It doesn't make sense to me. So I guess, where in the world did a little morality and human compassion go?

I wouldn't expect someone to apologize if they didn't mean it. But what kind of human being doesn't feel remorse for knocking a preschooler onto the pavement, hitting her head with no break to the fall? What kind of parent watches their kid do that and also has no remorse?

Politeness, manners, human compassion...it's all gone out the window, it seems.

Of course, there is nothing I can do about it. Nothing more than I do for my own kids. Which is model, model, model.

So where I really wanted to scream, "You little shit, watch where the fuck you're going! You just hurt my baby!" (I tend to have the mouth of a sailor, so says my husband) I suppressed that and instead just gathered that sweet girl in my arms and told her I knew that really had to hurt.

But seriously. I'm so sick of the lack of politeness I hear, or don't hear. I'm not perfect, but I do at least try to extend common courtesy to most people. I totally admit to being a bit of a firecracker, and when confronted with stupidity or closed mindedness, I tend to lose my own composure at times, but for the most part, I really do try.

And it's obviously working. Because my kids say "sorry" out of remorse. They say "please" and "thank you" unprompted and from a sincere place from their hearts.

At the end of the day, that's something I guess. Not all manners or compassion is lost if there are still some people out there, modeling for their children genuine courtesy.