Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has been hammered by the media for his lack of etiquette in public situations. Now, in my humbly polite opinion, a few of these were more a matter of personality quirks (not everyone's meant to be as prim and proper as Her Majesty). BUT, here's a bad manner that's too common, too awful, and almost too painful to watch.
What does this have to do with kids' parties? Let's play a little pretend.
When arriving at a photo op event to honor fallen soldiers (or in our case, a fun event to honor a birthday kid), Mr. Berlusconi (or our invited guest) is on his cell phone. The host of the event, who has planned for his arrival, his comfort, and his presence, is left waiting while she and her preparations are simply ignored. Mr. Berlusconi missed the photo op, the host is understandably irritated, yet he feels justified that he was "on the phone." Scortese! (Or, Rude! in anybody's native tongue.)
Lessons to be learned:
- Arrive on time. Your host has worked hard to make things happen during a particular timeframe.
- Greet your host with your full attention. Real people always get first dibs. That means don't put off real people for phone people (with rare emergency exceptions)
- Plan ahead. Your host has planned for your attendance; you should plan for it, too. Don't take calls that will overlap this scheduled time. Turn off your phone and turn your attention to the real people at hand. (That is exactly what voice mail is for.)
Here's the thing. Kids might not have cell phones to pull egregious gaffes like this (though we're seeing phones in littler hands all the time!). But they DO watch the grown-ups around them as examples. Hopefully, we're not watching our world leaders for the same....
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