Teach your children to say Thank You

How do you teach your child to be grateful?

I have two children, a soon-to-be 4 year old and a 16 month old. This Christmas as my son ripped open present after present, he asked me, "can I open more presents?"

Mind you, he had opened about 8 different gifts at that point. He had received a Cars book with miniature vehicles and a mat to play on, a nerf gun to shoot his dad and sister with, a giant house that he can color, a plane that was almost bigger than he, and so many other toys.

I thought to myself, "he's not even interested in the actual toy, just in the ripping open presents part." What's wrong with this picture?

How do you teach your children to be grateful and not be spoiled brats while still spoiling them (after all, you are their parent and you want to get them these goodies)?

So I sat down with my son and asked him what his favorite toy was and what was the best thing to do. So we called the person who gave him his gun, my brother, and sent him a picture of my son holding his new toy. We said, "Thank You".

Then I thought, now that my son is learning to write his name, when he turns four in eight days, I'm going to sit down with him and have him handwrite his name on individual thank you cards to give to everyone.

Hopefully he'll see how much work goes into handwriting each card and think twice the next time he opens a present. I'll keep you posted to see if it works!