Good Manners: A Parenting Concern
Since the Boost Kids program first began its inception into schools, social service agencies, and homes a few years back we have had the pleasure of speaking with parents from across the country. In talking with them and listening to their basic concerns about their children good manners was a major theme that seemed to echo throughout our conversations. The parents expressed a desire for their children to possess courteous, polite, and attentive conduct throughout all aspects of their lives and not just the traditional table manners and dinner etiquette. They wanted their children to understand the greater importance of good manners in building confidence and functioning in a social world. They wanted their children to be able to display these good manners on a regular basis and make it apart of their daily behavior. This desire was the reason for their curiosity about Boost Kids and it is directly to this parental concern that Boost Kids was created. Our goal 
was and is to take good manners beyond the dinner table and place it at the foundation of a child’s behavior with and toward others. A few years into our journey our goal continues its fruition. Parents and children have successfully used Boost Kids as a recipe for developing the good manners parents were searching for with their children.
At this point parents you might be thinking, “Well, what does Boost Kids teach?” and we will get to that shortly. However, it is first important to understand what children are facing. As they are growing from early childhood to adolescence children face an onslaught of new and unfamiliar social experiences and the expectations placed on them in these situations change as they grow older. Parents we know you worry about this transition and how your child will conduct them selves. Will they display good manners? Not just to appease the other person but to build strong relationships and display integrity. Through Boost Kids we have been able to provide parents with a tool to help them answer this question with a “yes”. The program covers a variety of social situations to give children the information they need to function with good manners in these circumstances. Areas addressed include greeting people, holding a conversation, talking on the phone, saying “thank you”, apologizing, dealing with a bragger, not talking behind someone’s back, and many others. These social manners are a bit more challenging for children to develop then using the correct fork. It requires the ability to appreciate others, hold frustrations, display humility, and have confidence in them selves. However, the rewards from spending the time to learn and experience these skills will be of great benefit to your child throughout life.
How BoostKids Can Help:
BoostKids is a program that can help increase a child’s confidence by teaching social skills to children and building their character. BoostKids has been and is currently being taught in schools, non-profit organizations, and after-school programs. The program is now available as an at-home training program for children and their parents. The key training tool of the BoostKids program is an interactive CD-ROM that shows kids the right-way and the wrong-way to handle social situations. They learn from real kid actors in real-life scenerios!
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By Charlie Copp - Executive Director of Boost Kids
About the author: Charlie Copp is the executive director for BOOST KIDS, an interactive CD ROM-based program for kids ages six and up, that teaching children social skills and strong character across the nation. His work with BOOST KIDS confirms what Copp has always believed: that kids and teens are hungry for character-building life skills, and with them gain the confidence needed to succeed in the classroom, on the playing field, in their interpersonal relationships, and on the job.
