antique French Poster
It wasn't. Me: I need you to ask Daddy to make a phone call. Say, 'RSVP to this party, please.'
Clementine (trying to sound it out in her head): Why? What does it spell?
Me: It's an acronym (we've covered acronyms before). It stands for répondez s'il vous plaît. It means, 'please respond' in French (said in my in best I-took-Spanish-not-French-accent). It's asking the person who gets it to answer 'yes' or 'no' so that the sender will know whether or not the person who got the invitation is coming to an event or not. It's on most invitations and we always try to make sure we do it, because it's a sign of good manners. It's a big girl thing.
Clementine: Okay...
cover of vintage book of manners
Me: So, say to Daddy, 'RSVP, please'.
Clementine: RVSP, please
Me: No. 'R-S-V-P'
Clementine: R-S-S-P, please
Me: No, 'R---S---V---P'. Please
Clementine: R-V-P-P, please
Me: No, 'R----S----V-----P'
Clementine: R-S-V-P
Me: Yes, perfect. Thank you.
antique French poster
Clementine smiles and skips off. I spend the next minute or so patting myself on the back, proud, because I've taught her what RSVP means, and that it's polite to respond when we get one. Manners and French in one fell swoop? How awesome is that?
cover of vintage book of manners
A few moments later...
Clementine: DADDY, PLEASE R-S-V-P TO THIS PARTY. OKAY? R-S-V-P TO THIS PARTY. PLEASE R-S-V-P TO THIS PARTY. DADDY...
I'm upstairs, down a hallway and behind a closed door. She's yelling loud enough to make me wince. She wasn't being rude on purpose. I could hear the excitement of being asked to do a "big girl" task for Mommy.
Still: imagine what it was like in person.
Clearly, I'd remembered to stress Manners and to throw in a few words of French, but totally forgot to touch on the Don't Yell Indoors lesson which we've covered so many times in the past.
My bad.
A few minutes later, she returns...
Clementine: Daddy says if I scream like that again, I'm not going to the party. I said I won't do it again, so I am going.
Before I could say anything else, she was off to her room to tell her stuffed ponies about the party.
Sigh
Illustration from:
Goops and how to be them : a manual of manners for polite infants inculcating many juvenile virtues both by precept and example (c1900), by Gelett Burgess
Clementine learned what RSVP means.
I have again learned not to take anything for granted when speaking to five year olds.
~~~
Electronic copies of Goops and how to be them : a manual of manners for polite infants inculcating many juvenile virtues both by precept and example (c1900), by Gelett Burgess can be found here at Archive.org^.
Electronic copies of More Goops and how not to be them : a manual of manners for impolite infants, depicting the characteristics of many naughty and thoughtless children, with instructive illustrations (c1903) can be found here at Archive.org^
Illustration from:
More Goops and how not to be them : a manual of manners for impolite infants, depicting the characteristics of many naughty and thoughtless children, with instructive illustrations (c1903), by Gelett Burgess
Both were popular turn-of-the-century (the 20th century, of course) guides to teaching manners to children with wit and humor. Both are out of copyright, and are free to download.
Another of the Goop books is available here, at Project Gutenberg^. Titled The Goop Directory of Juvenile Offenders Famous for their Misdeeds and Serving as a Salutary Example for all Virtuous Children (c 1913), it's available in several mobile formats.
Illustration from:
The Goop Directory of Juvenile Offenders Famous for their Misdeeds and Serving as a Salutary Example for all
Virtuous Children, (c 1913), by Gelett Burgess
The Goop Directory of Juvenile Offenders Famous for their Misdeeds and Serving as a Salutary Example for all
Virtuous Children, (c 1913), by Gelett Burgess
Other books by Gelett Burgess are available at Project Gutenberg, here^.
Namaste
deena
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