So I visited my parents a couple of weeks ago, and my mother and I went to the grocery store…and when she was done unloading her groceries into her trunk, she just slid the shopping cart a couple of feet out of her way and left it there.
It hadn’t crossed my mind til then that, come to think of it, she never did return her shopping cart to the “cart corrals” or whatever they’re called. She has always left it wherever she parked.
She also doesn’t hang up clothes in the dressing room when she’s trying stuff on; she just leaves the clothes she doesn’t want in piles. If there’s a bench in the dressing room, she’ll pile the clothes on that; if not, the floor will do.
She didn’t tip worth a crap til I started waiting tables and painted her a vivid picture of why tipping is important. (She’s an excellent tipper now, FTR.)
But ever since I was old enough to do my own shopping/tipping etc., I have always either put the shopping cart into a corral, or walked it back up to the store…I’ve always hung clothes back up on their hangers and, if available, put them on the “return” rack in the dressing room…and of course I’ve always tipped because my first job at 17 was in a restaurant…
Nobody ever told me to; I wasn’t “raised to do it.” I just always felt guilty if I didn’t. I just always assumed that it’s somebody’s job to do these things and I could take ten seconds and make their job easier. Kind of a karma thing.
Which makes me wonder…who else does “polite” things that their parents didn’t/don’t? And why?
I should mention that when I was growing up my mother was generally a stickler for polite behavior…pick up your plate, put your napkin in your lap, say “ma’am” and “sir,” offer to clean up, be the kind of guest you’d like to have, don’t take the last of anything, always be polite to everyone, don’t point, don’t stare, etc., etc…
But there are a few things, like I mentioned above, that were never on her radar. And yet they’ve always been on mine.
Just curious!
