Manners These Days

Hairdresser, as she returns some brushes to Shay, my hairdresser: Thanks for that Shay.
Shay, my hairdresser: That’s all right.

Have you noticed how these days the usual response to an expression of thanks is not You’re welcome or My pleasure but That’s all right, No worries or That’s okay? Why even the below-stairs staff have succumbed to this. Just the other week a mere serving wench shot me a breezy That’s okay after I thanked her for removing my dirty plates.

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I was most amused to discover this morning that PE teachers, who wear sneakers and sporty clothes to school, wear the exact same clothes to PE teachers’ conferences. Do they wear the same to malls, to the cinema, to weddings?