by Elaine Thigpen

Created on: June 10, 2010

When someone is rude to you, what do you do? Do you retaliate or be nice? Of course, the natural instinct is to be rude right back to the person. Think for a moment what the world would be like if we retaliated against every person who was rude to us. It would not be a very pretty picture.

There are reasons why a person is the way they are. Unless you know the person and their situation, it is just not right to be rude back. How do you know that the person could have had a great start to the day only later to get some bad news? Maybe they are going through a difficult time in their life. Who is to say, that they might have a mental illness. Some of us don’t have control over it or just don’t know how to be nice.

In this world that we are living in, it is not a good idea to be rude back to a person. Think for a moment how you would feel if your rudeness puts them over the edge. If that person is psychotic, they might hunt you down and do serious harm to you. You hear many stories of people are getting even with people because they were mean to them.  The other alternative that they could do is commit suicide.  Are these end results you want to have on your conscience?

It is always a good idea to be polite, courteous and nice to everyone regardless how they treat you. You never know your niceness could brighten their day. Later when they are out of their slump, they might thank you for being nice when they were down.

When it comes to children treating others rudely the same applies here. There is a difference between being rude and bullying. Rudeness is an occasional occurrence; meanwhile, bullying is an ongoing event targeting a certain child.  If the incident is bullying then the child needs to tell an adult, if possible, and let their parents know.

The bottom line is we must live the Golden Rule: “Treat others how you want to be treated”, not the other way around. It is always so much easier to do the wrong/bad thing; so put forth that extra effort and be nice to them. Unless it transfers into bullying, then you can take the necessary action.

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