To wonder what happened to old fashioned manners?

[Daisysbear]

I was in a coffee shop yesterday evening and two children (aged about 8 or 9) were tearing around the place, banging against people's chairs, running in and out the door to the garden causing huge gusts of freezing air to blow through the place, and generally being a nuisance while their mums sat sipping coffee and ignoring them.

I was driving through a one way car park system afterwards and a woman coming the wrong way refused point blank to reverse, so I had to.

This morning on the bus two schoolkids sat comfortably chatting away while various people, myself included, stood up to let two elderly women, a middle aged woman with her arm in a sling, and an elderly man sit down.

Shortly after, I was sitting in the dentist's waiting room with about 5 other people and a girl in her twenties walked in and just flung open the window without asking if anyone minded before plonking down on a chair and having a very loud conversation on her phone.

I know there was always rude people around, but all the above happened in the space of less than 24 hours.

AIBU to think that good manners seem to becoming less and less evident, and that a lot of parents don't seem to bother to teach children to show a bit of courtesy and consideration for others?

Or am I turning into a grumpy old lady?

[tormentil]

I do think there is a difference between 'good manners' (externally judged) and an intrinsic motivation to respect other people and their spaces.

This has helped me to clarify that good manners are, in fact, the way in which people show respect for others and their space.

And therefore, they should be taught in childhood.

The examples that the OP gives are, to me, examples of thoughtlessness and selfishness.

Not telling your children to stay away from playing around a door when it is disrupting the experience of someone else is very inconsiderate. The mothers are saying that their rights are trumping your rights.

The driver in the car park should have apologised for not reversing when she was clearly in the wrong and had inconvenienced another person.

The bus - not quite so clear cut as another inconsiderate person is likely to take the empty seats.

My idea of manners in public spaces is looking around me and being sufficiently aware that I'm not trampling on or inconveniencing anyone and taking care not to do so.

I'm not sure it's about 'external judgement' as it is about being socially aware.