The One about Teens and Thank You Notes

As I shared in my last post, my teenage son graduated from high school this month. It was a milestone event and he was showered with appreciation (okay, money) from family and friends to honor his achievement.

I’m so thankful for everyone’s well-wishes!

One of the things he didn’t learn in high school, though, was how to write thank you notes.

Yup, that task is left to us parents to teach our kids. And it’s a good lesson to teach, for sure, if not excruciatingly painful.

After stating that the sooner he got them done the better, I gave my teen a drop dead deadline of two weeks from his graduation date to finish his thank you notes. Why two weeks? I Googled it and according to American Greetings on the World Wide Web, two weeks is “a respectable, comfortable amount of time to get through the task and communicate appreciation.”

Here’s how the timeline looked when all was said and done:

Day 1

Me: You have 2 weeks to finish your thank you notes. Got it?

Son: Yup.

Me: And I mean fully finished. Stamped, addressed, put in the outgoing mail. Got it?

Son: Yup.

Days 2-12

Me: Hey, did you finish your thank you notes?

Son: No.

Me: Okay…

Son: Yup.

Day 13

Me: Did you finish your thank you notes?

Son: Yes.

Me: Awesome! Really?

Son: Well, I wrote them. But I have to put the addresses on them. And the stamps. And put them in the mailbox.

Day 14

Me: Did you…

Son: YES. Geesh, Mom, I did them, stop nagging me.

And you know what? He did finish them completely in his two week timeframe, with about 30 minutes to spare before the letter carrier stopped by our mailbox. That wasn’t hard now was it?

I’m totally lying. Lord help me and his future bride should he ever get married and have to write thank you notes again!