Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Ask Angie: Can you thank someone too much?

An interesting question came my way the other day: Is there a limit to how many times you have to say thank you or bless you? For instance, if someone has a sneezing fit – do you say bless you repeatedly seven to eight times? If you are leaving the office at the same time as someone else and they open the door for you all the way out – do you just keep saying thank you?


To the thank you question – I would answer yes. If someone does something nice or generous for you, then you should say thank you over and over. I do not believe you can actually thank too much.

To the bless you question – If you are a person that bestows blessings on a sneezer, then I think one bless you is fine. It becomes a bit embarrassing for both the sneezer and the blesser to go on and on.

What about you? Do you have any questions for Ask Angie?
You can write me QuestionforAngie(at)gmail.com.

3 comments:

  1. I agree - it does become embarrassing to keep saying "bless you". However, I think our culture and etiquette makes this almost "expected". So if you don't say it to the sneezee and a stranger does, it can make you feel uncomfortable. But I think this is good advice to follow. Once is enough!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I remember a Valpo friend would give three "bless yous" and if you sneezed again, it got a "go to hell." A nice, if not appropriate way, to ease the sneezing tension. I've wanted to say that myself so many times over the years.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I love it Shannon! You could do a whole list of ways to stop saying Bless You:

    I'm out of blessings.
    I think you need medication
    Okay - that's enough
    Really??

    ReplyDelete