Raise a Kid Who Gets Invited Back

Sending our kids out into the world -- and into other people's homes -- can be a tricky proposition. If they're reasonably well behaved, it makes us, their parents, look good. But if they boss their buddy around and terrorize the cat...

Raising kids who don't act like cave-children in public is all about encouraging respect. It's not about teaching them to be annoyingly, precociously polite, sitting with folded hands at a party and inquiring after another mom's health. It is about making sure our kids treat other people -- and their things -- nicely, so that other moms will want them in their houses again. "Kids who behave at friends' houses have a better chance of becoming kids who behave with their teachers and, eventually, adults who get on well with their friends, family, and bosses," says Jodi R.R. Smith, a mom and etiquette consultant in Boston. "The bottom line: People with good social skills tend to get further in life. That's reality." The lessons are simple...

Raise a Kid Who Gets Invited Back - Parenting.com.