Jenn McKinlay: During the school break after every holiday, there would come the dreaded day that my mom would pull out the list of gifts we'd received from family, a pack of stationary, and a couple of pens. My brother and I would then take up residence at the kitchen table until every thank you note had been written.
Not gonna lie, when there were snowball fights to be had, our sledding hill was beckoning, and the ice on the lake had just frozen over enough to skate on, being forced to stay inside and write thank you notes was sheer torture. It took us forever!
Now that I'm a full time writer, I laugh at ten year old me. Writing a heartfelt thank you is a no brainer (thanks, Mom!) and I can't believe I was ever so resistant. The Hooligans were given the same task as kids and I'm pleased that while they don't use stationary and stamps anymore, they always text thank you messages to people who've given them gifts or helped them out in some way.
Mostly, any thank yous I get these days are in text or email form. I'm okay with that, I mean, it does save trees but there is something extra special about getting a thank you card in the mail. Frankly, it feels a bit more sincere.
How about you, Reds and Readers, what's your take on thank you notes?
I think a "thank you" is always important . . . these days, a text is certainly one way to express your gratitude, but I really do like those hand-written notes . . . .
ReplyDeleteMy favorite boss, 50 years ago, always said you can never say thank you too many times. Words to live by.
ReplyDeleteWe nearly always send thank notes, one way or another. And I appreciate gratitude expressed in any form, and notice when it isn't proffered.
I was floored after the first participation in the commumity garden tour to receive a lovely note from a couple who had visited my garden. They thanked me for being part of the tour, and encouraged me to continue to do so. And they sent a note again this year. I really wish they had introduced themselves, so I could thank them!
I hated writing thank you notes when I was a kid. I don’t know if I understood the importance of expressing your gratitude at that age, but I also know my sincerity was questionable in the stilted tone of the notes! My son was raised to write them, too, but definitely transitioned to the text format. I think a handwritten note is much nicer than a text, but realize that is probably a minority opinion from anyone under 50. — Pat S
ReplyDeleteI was raised to write thank you notes and so were my children. My daughter will usually still send one in the mail, but the boys are texters. My oldest and his wife never sent wedding thank you notes and I am still pissed about it ten years later. I suppose because I feel it reflects badly on me as a parent.
ReplyDeleteWe received a thank you note in the mail in the past week from a neighbor thanking us for organizing and being a host home for the cookie walk. We have no idea who she is and would not recognize her if we met her on the street. The return address is from a couple of streets over. I need to get to know her as her address label had a beagle on it and she used a hummingbird stamp…two of my favorite things!
I don’t care about the form, but I require a thank you note. But I do treasure a hand written one.
ReplyDeleteIf I don’t get an acknowledgement in a reasonable time, I write and ask if the gift was lost in the mail or was booty for some porch pirate.
And when this happens more than a couple of times, I stop sending gifts. The Bank of Grandmother requires recognition! Or it closes the ungrateful account!
I do very much appreciate thank you notes, especially written ones, but a text or an email works just as well. My sons also had practice of enforced thank you note writing after Christmas, and I think they're pretty good about it texting or calling their thank yous.
ReplyDeleteSometimes I get a written thank you card from a reader who has won one of my books. The mail comes to my post office box which I don't check very often, so it's a delight to stop by there and find some handwritten cards.
DeleteAs children we were expected to write thank you notes and I taught my children to do likewise. As long as the kindness is acknowledged it can be a written note, text or email. However, there is something very special about sending/receiving a hand written note in the mail.
ReplyDeleteDianne Mahoney
I am also one who wrote as a child and still do ... I don't text or email, but sometimes I telephone someone, particularly people I know who need and love calls!
ReplyDeleteAlways, although they are not always handwritten these days. And to be honest, that could be a kindness to my recipients!
ReplyDeleteI don't think the format is important so much as the content of the thank you. I have friends who are 50 years younger than me and their approach to showing gratitude is different from my peers. Doesn't make it any less touching or memorable. For me, it truly is the thought that counts, not the frippery surrounding it.
ReplyDeleteFor the new year I have prepared a box of thank you notes to send to my sister. They are simple cards expressing gratitude, not necessarily for gifts, etc. My note to her says, "In gratitude for all you did to help me survive this past year and hope that the year to come is filled with many more reasons to give thanks." She, in turn, will use them to spread her own form of gratitude. -- Victoria
I believe thank you notes are important and raised Jonathan to understand it is important to write them. But these days, even I am texting photos of the flower bouquet they sent me for my birthday.
ReplyDeleteI am an excellent thank you card writer and once upon a time, I considered hanging up my shingle to write notes for others. (LOL) Then I wondered whether people too lazy to write their own thank you notes, would actually keep track of whose present was whose?
I'm pretty good at thank you notes, although as a child I didn't enjoy the task. A couple of years ago, during November, while reading Diana Butler Bass's book Grateful, I wrote a thank-you every day to to someone in my life. They went mostly to friends and family, but a few to more professional connections. My dentist's office was so surprised--they texted me right away! It was a great exercise in developing a grateful heart.
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