Today I sat down and finally wrote my thank you letters to my students and their families for the generous end of the year gift that they gave me. I know that many people do not write thank you notes anymore. A thing of the past perhaps?? My mother was a stickler for writing them and as kids, never let us get by without doing it!! After she died, there were hundreds of thank you notes to write so we divided them up the among my family members so that no one would have to do all of them. I tried to get them done immediately. I don’t like having things hanging over my head and I really wanted to get it done and let everyone who expressed their sympathy through mass cards, letters and flowers know just how much it meant to all of us.
Dave on the other hand, was never encouraged to write thank you notes. Not that he was not grateful for things that he received, but his parents did not make him do it. Mine did! When I was younger I would definitely say that they MADE me do it, but now, I actually enjoy writing a quick note of gratitude to let others know that I am appreciative. With email and texts that are so easy to send out, be deleted and then forgotten, a hard copy of a thank you note is actually nice to receive once in awhile.
I will admit, that I often will send out a quick email thanking someone. I get lazy and that certainly is an easier way to do it! Even postage is expensive these days so why not do it the quick, cheap and easy way??? Unfortunately with Dave’s and my different upbringing regarding writing thank you notes, our own boys get caught in the middle. I pressure them to write them, and Dave goes along with it – but only because he knows how important it is to me, but they do it as minimalists. I can usually get a quick, “Dear ____, thank you for the ____, Love “. I guess we settle at that since it brings us to a happy medium. I want my boys to know that it really is important. Is writing letters a lost art??
There are certain people that need to receive an actual note. My 98 year old grandma is one of those people. She doesn’t use the internet so would never get an email, but I know that she loves receiving mail from her grandchildren and great grandchildren! Even at her age, she does a lot for all of us and needs to know that she is appreciated. Appreciated seems to be the key word here. Knowing that someone has gone out of their way to do something for you, seems to be enough to warrant some sort of acknowledgement to know that you are grateful.
What do you think? Do you still write thank you notes?
A Project for Kindness 