When I grew up in the 50’s and 60’s, we were taught good manners to know what was acceptable behavior and what was not. In my family, it would never occur to my brothers or I to run and scream in a store because there were consequences.

I record The View daily to hear the hot topics. One of the topics on men behaving badly in the work environment eventually got into young people and how they are not being taught good manners. According to Whoopie, they don’t know what good manners are!

Evidently, an older man came to the office and said to his new female administrator (in her 20’s), “you look nice today.” Immediately after entering his private office, the administrator knocks on the door, enters and proceeds to tell him he has no right to tell her she looks nice and how would he like it if a man said that to him?

I understand the issue here, but young women today have no idea how to differentiate good manners from bad behavior. In the 70’s when I started working, I was in computer software - a male dominated field at that time. Not only was I not taken seriously, I had men hitting on me every day, making sexist remarks. At that time, there was no limit to what a female had to put up with.

Thank goodness employment laws changed and awareness was raised. But come on - it’s not that hard to tell when a man is giving you a compliment and when he is exhibiting bad behavior. Isn’t it our job as parents to make sure our kids grow up to know the difference?

I raised my son as a single parent and his only male examples were my brothers. His father lived in another state most of his childhood. It was my job to teach him how to treat women and how to be polite. To this day he always opens doors for women, most of whom stand and stare at him in disbelief. I have to admit, I have the same reaction if a man happens to hold the door for me. Most of them just let is slam in my face.

And I definitely feel the difference in how I am treated now as opposed to when I was younger. Envious stares and whistles have been replaced by rudeness. Most young people simply ignore older people, as if they are not as important or are invisible. And I really don’t consider myself old! Good grief - I’m in my 50’s, is that really that old?

Wouldn’t it be nice if everyone displayed good manners? Imagine how delightful your day would be!