Amanda Gamble from All Experts.com has given some great advice on public displays of affection. Now, before I give you an excerpt from her article, I want to state for the record that I have been head over heels in love with my husband for thirteen years and that we are caught (mostly by our children) stealing a smooch in public every now and again, it keeps it exciting and romantic. This, however, is not what I am referring to. I am referring to making others feel uncomfortable in your presence. I hold hands, we put our arms around each other, we're more in love today than we were thirteen years ago, but we certainly (I would hope) control ourselves and have always tried to act appropriately. Amanda said, "Good manners dictate that you be very considerate of those around you and try to make them feel as comfortable as possible. So therefore, enthusiastic PD of A are....not acceptable."
She hit the nail on the head in my opinion. Again, as I always say, good manners are there to help others feel more comfortable in our presence, and how could they possibly do that with us all over another person? Here is the letter written to her and her response in it's entirety.
On another note, please help me climb up on my soap box....thank you. I was watching a program the other day and was shocked as a well mannered woman behaved in a way that I considered less than....well mannered. We all have our pitfalls, we all have our challenges, but this was absolutely it for me. Let me just say, it is not our place ladies and gentlemen, to be correcting others on their behavior. It is our place to learn good manners and etiquette and live that to the best of our ability, but the epitome of bad manners is to appear to have good manners and etiquette and then go on to correct others around you, especially on a constant basis. No one is perfect, so we should be very careful. I have said many times that I write this blog as much for myself as I write it for each one of you. Okay....I'm climbing back down now. I need to get a real soap box so I can actually stand on it while I write these!
7 comments:
I love your blog and have lurked here for some time. Thank you for sharing the gift of your knowledge, kindness, humor and life experiences. I am grateful for the gentle reminders you so beautifully write about here. Truly, Lucy
P.S. I think we were watching the same program as I couldn't help but cringe at what the discourteous countess said at the charity event!
That's why there's the old standby line, "Get a room."
Thank you for this precious reminder. :)
I'm with you on PDA. I saw some of the most inappropriate PDA as a lifeguard at a large waterpark. Without hesitation I would call the couples out (often to their own embarassment),by shouting through my megaphone, "This is a family park, not a family making park, thank you!"
That being said, while I recognize no one's perfect and that one should judge in the same manner they wish to be judged, I also feel being "called out" should be one of the expected consequences of poor decisions. Otherwise, people tend to convince themselves they've done nothing wrong.
Great advice!
I always tease my hubby that I'm gonna buy him an inflatable soap box he can carry in his pocket.
Whenever he starts off on something I pretend to blow one up for him... LOL
Janine, what a cool blog! I am going to have to bookmark this and lurk here more often! Good job! I think I'll be taking a button to put on my sidebar too. Thanks.
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