8 Places People Need More Manners ...

This is at the very top of my list of places people desperately need manners, and I’m sure everyone agrees with me. All day long, no matter where I drive, people are cutting me off, not using their turn signals, splashing clumps of snow onto my windshield, parking at odd angles across two spaces, and refusing to let other people merge. Really, are you in that much of a hurry that you can’t show your fellow driver a little courtesy?

I don’t know if it’s because it’s the holidays, or if I’m just noticing it more because I’m standing in line more, but when did it become okay to cut into front of someone in line? Didn’t we learn this when we were, like, three? If someone’s already waiting in line for something, get behind them and patiently wait your turn, like everyone else.

This one may seem a bit odd, so maybe it’s just a pet peeve of mine, but I sure wish people would pay attention to their shopping carts, in stores and in parking lots. They run into the backs of my legs while they’re blindly reaching for peanut butter, or leave their empty cart running through the parking lot, somehow magnetically attracted to my car. Pay attention to your cart while you’re in the store (in other words, stop running into me with it!) and put the empty cart in the cart corral in the parking lot when you’re done with it. Please. I promise to do the same.

It’s so simple — clean up after yourself at the gym, and don’t get in the middle of my set. Seriously. It’s hard enough to be motivated to go to the gym without having to worry about accidentally working out in someone else’s sweat, or having to stop what I’m doing while you purposefully cut in front of my on the machine I’ve been using.

There are a few places where I think texting ought to be downright illegal, a ticketable or jailable offense. School is one of them. I can’t tell you how frustrating it is to hear the buzzing, clicking, and vibrating while I’m trying to pay attention to lecture. Yes, I’m a nerd. Maybe if you paid more attention to the lecture, and less attention to texting your idiotic drunk friend about plans after school, you might be passing this class, too.

Please do not let your child crawl all over me on a plane. Or let them slam their seat backwards into my knees. Or let them grab my tiny cup of ice and spit in it. Or steal my headphones. Seriously. And hey, while you’re at it, try not doing these annoying, rude things yourself.

How hard is it to flush a toilet after yourself? You do it at home, right? So why on earth can you not do it in a public restroom? If you’re worried about germs that might be on the toilet handle, fine. Wrap your hand mummy-like in tissue paper before you press the handle. There. Now we’re both happy!

Chances are, if I’m at the movies, I’ve paid a lot of money to be there, and I haven’t seen this movie yet. So please, please, don’t chat all the way through, or worse, ruin the ending for me. And if the theater is practically open, don’t sit directly in front of me or behind me and get in my way.

These are just a few of the places people need to remember their manners, you know, the ones we all learned when we were little children. Don’t you agree? Which of these places do you think people tend to be the most rude? Or is there another location where people forget their manners?

Top Photo Credit: Miss Britt