Yesterday in the mail I received a thank you from my cousin.
Had I given her a present? Had I done something extra special for her? Nope. I
had simply invited her to a party that I had. She came and had a great time and
wanted to thank me for extending the invite. It was a nice note that absolutely
did not have to be written (and mailed) but it was so nice to receive.
It reminded me how my husband and I recently had one of our repeat
conversations about how he thinks my family is crazy about thank you cards. He
said he’s never heard of people who write as many thank yous as we do. The
older I get the more I realize that we might be a bit crazy about it. After all,
by far the majority of thank yous I receive are indeed from my own family. However,
it’s a kind of crazy that I want to be. It takes so little to say thank you and
really only a bit more effort to write it. My mother raised me to write thank
you notes for everything. After every holiday, birthday, event, etc. I can
remember sitting at the table with her writing out thank you cards. It was just
what we did.
I am now doing my best to raise the next generation of
thankers. Every time my children receive gifts I make them write thank you
notes. Obviously, they are small so we tweak the thank you accordingly.
Isabelle and Henry dictate the message to me and I write it for them. They then
color a picture or design on each letter. Daniel also scribbles his own
personalization on his thank yous. I feel that it’s really important for them
to add a personal touch to it. Beyond the whole obvious reason that someone did
something nice for us and we want to acknowledge it, it’s rare to get regular
mail that isn’t bills so a handwritten thank you goes a long way. So yeah, I
guess I am crazy about thank you notes. I can only hope that when my kids are
grown that they are crazy for thanks yous, too.
