Teach manners.

If you're going to pick and choose from this list of parenting tips, be sure to pick this tip.

Manners is a lost art. Parents just don’t do it anymore and that’s not right. Have you said or done something nice for a child other than in your own family and they don't even know enough to say thank you? These are the children who grow up to be store clerks or the waitress in the restaurant who don't know enough to say thank you when they take your money paying for their services.

I start teaching my daycare kids their manners at the age of two. I often have the parents ask me how I get them to say please and thank you. It’s simple. I hand them their sippy cup or a cracker and when they go to take it from me, I don’t let go until they say please and then thank you.

I have ten to twelve kids at the lunch table everyday. It takes a lot of time and a lot of effort, but I work very hard at teaching them manners.

Many times they have a choice between two fruits or two vegetables. When I tell them their choices, I teach them to give me their answer followed by a please. When I place the plate in front of them, they are to say thank you. When they remember to use their manners on their own, I show my gratitude for the nice manners and they're always very proud.

Sometimes, I change the game a little. If a child asks me for a cracker, I say "What?" They'll say, "Can I have a cracker?" I say "What?" After about four times, they understand and the next question is "Can I have a cracker, please?" Then we giggle together.

The thing about teaching manners that I learned from my own kids is that you can work and work and work with them until you're red in the face and they still won’t remember to use manners around home. But trust me, when they’re in public, they'll remember.