The Thank You Note

I became StepMolly to two kids who already had some pretty great habits: great manners in general, excellent table manners, and better grammar than I have most days. I came into their lives in the summer before 1st grade (Ana) and the last year of preschool (Yoseph). So it was just about the right time for them to learn a habit they hadn’t been ready for yet: writing thank you notes.

I love greeting cards. And snail mail. And notecards. And stationery. I may single-handedly be keeping the US Postal Service in business.

I think hand-written notes in general are just so special. I have boxes (seriously, boxes) of letters I have exchanged with all kinds of people: elementary age pen pals; elected officials I contacted in middle school (don’t all 11 year old girls contact their Senators?); and precious correspondence with grandparents, my parents, and friends in college. I had nearly all of our wedding thank you notes out within a week (as Tim commented dryly to a friend later, it was a really fun honeymoon. Don’t worry, I did them after we got home!). I was so touched by the gifts and cards from the people who joined us on our special day or sent love from afar, I wanted to respond quickly as a way of sharing my overflowing heart of gratitude with them.

So it stands to reason that I would find a way to incorporate note-writing into the kids’ lives.

Here are some samples of some super sweet Christmas thank you notes they wrote my parents:

I was super excited that Gammy, Tim’s mom, shares my passion for hand-written notes and bought the kids (and me!) personalized stationery for Christmas! So those cute notes will make appearances all year long.

I came across this great article recently about why kids won’t/don’t write thank you notes. It was a great reminder for me that it does matter!