Response to Comment on Courteous Behavior

Ginny Brown — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 13:00:39 +0000

I received a comment about the post which I wrote on Courteous Behavior. Unfortunately, the comment was lost, and I can’t post it. I can paraphrase it. The comment was that I should just get over it! In this comment, I recalled the parking lot situation which my daughter and I experienced. If you haven’t read this earlier post, please do so you will understand what I’m saying.

It wasn’t the fact that we found a cart parked behind the car. I see lots of people leave their carts loose in the parking lots and not in the specific areas designed to hold the carts. I assume that some people may have an emergency, not be physically able to walk to the cart area, and some just don’t care and think that it doesn’t matter. I am one of those people who do put their cart in the designed area. What I got annoyed with in this situation was the fact that the man saw us arriving at the car and still proceeded to block our backing out of the parking space. It wasn’t an issue of his leaving his cart loose in the lot; it was that he left it so that it blocked a car from being able to move. The other action that I was annoyed with was his total disregard for someone else’s property when he shoved the cart and let it go wherever. If it had hit my daughter’s car, it would have done damage. Respect for others just makes good sense, and we are all responsible for our actions.

I don’t think that I should have to “just get over this”. What if everyone acted like this? What if this had been your car, and you weren’t able to keep the cart from slamming into your car? How would you feel about that? Would you deliberately block someone’s car in a lot because you didn’t care if you inconveniced them? If we all acted like this man did and had such little respect for others and their property, what kind of society would we live in now?

Questions or comments are always appreciated.

Ginny Brown
The Etiquette School of Northeast Georgia
Hoschton, Georgia (Hamilton Mill area, Dacula, GA)
Email Ginny Brown
678-889-4814 office
770-296-4159 cell

http://etiquette-blog.com

Courteous Behavior

Ginny Brown — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 05:01:32 +0000

I wrote an article on the blog before titled “Practicing Everyday Etiquette”. I want to make a few more comments on this topic. What do you think when you hear the word etiquette or manners? Do you think of dining manners? Is this the only place you relate these two words? As I mentioned before, etiquette and manners go way beyond the dining skills.

Lack Of Common Courtesy

I’m constantly amazed at people’s lack of common courtesy. I’m not talking about someone’s lack of very polished dining skills. I’m just talking about what most people consider being courteous of another person. I was out of state last week and experienced a situation that baffled me. My daughter and I were walking to her car which was parked in a large lot at a store. The person parked next to her was loading his truck as we were approaching my daughter’s car. The person clearly saw us and saw us arrive at my daughter’s car. This person left their shopping cart right behind my daughter’s car. There was no way she could back up her car without running right into the cart! My daughter and I both looked at each other and couldn’t believe what we had just seen. While the driver of the truck was backing out of his space, my daughter and I commented that the other person was extremely rude. We just looked at the other driver with surprise.

After he backed out, he then got out of his truck, shoved his cart away from our car, and drove off not looking back. What he didn’t realize or care about was the cart then started rolling towards my daughter’s car. Had she not reacted quickly, the cart would have slammed right into the side of her car. We still stood there shocked at this person’s inconsiderate behavior.

Conclusion

Etiquette and manners extend outside of the dining room. They are a part of all aspects of daily life as I mentioned earlier. They affect our interactions with others in any shopping situation, anytime we send an e-mail whether it’s to a friend or a business associate, whenever we are on the telephone land line or cell, to registering a complaint. How you conduct yourself determines how someone will respond to you.

Think about an experience you’ve had that might be similar to the one my daughter and I experienced last week. What did you think? Were you being courteous and someone else wasn’t? Could your experience have been avoided, and if so, how could it? I welcome any comments which you would like to share.