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I think she is to the extent that a 2.5 year old can be. She's really great about saying thank you and she rarely acts entitled to things (asks nicely, shares well with her friends, etc). I don't think she has an appreciation for how privledged her life is but at 2.5 I don't think she can really understand that concept. We intend to make philanthropy/volunteerism a part of her upbringing so she will gain appreciation for the life she has been lucky enough to have, but we're just not there yet.

What we are struggling with right now is taking responsibility for actions. She will apologize to me for ever little accident (spilling something, bumping in to me) but when she actually does something wrong on purpose she clams up and looks at the ground when I try to get her to apologize.

My son has manners, but I wouldn't say he's grateful for the life he has. I do think he is spoiled in terms of attention, it's hard because he's an only child and I actually like to spend time with him.

I feel like those are big emotions/characteristics to slap on to kids as young as mine (3 and 19 months) because they probably don't know what it means yet to be "appreciate of the life they have." It's not like they know that they could have much less, or even that mom and dad work hard to make money to provide for them,

But they certainly say thank you a lot, and to everyone! They're very polite kids.

Sometimes out of the blue DD will ask me who got her the toy/book she is playing with, and then she will say, "thank you for buying me x toy". Most often, we have to prompt her thank yous. I don't think she is really appreciative/grateful and we think it's because she has so many things. DH and I have talked about taking a break from buying her any toys for a whole year. We try to have talks with her every day to address empathy, gratitude, etc.

My daughter has been taught to be gracious and appreciative and at 3, she does a pretty good job. She's reliable with her pleases and thank yous, she's not overly entitled, she doesn't have a fit when we say no to something in a store. She has a growing understanding of the fact that the best parts of our lives together are experiences and not the stuff we buy.

I believe that modeling these things is good, but that you have to set the expectation and stick to it. I know a shocking amount of children who aren't consistently expected to be polite and gracious, and some of them are just rude beyond measure.