Common Courtesy ...

I used that title some time back, didn't I?
Or was it "Etiquette"?
I was then speaking of  being courteous on Facebook. One should not learn of funeral arrangements on Facebook if one were at all close to the deceased. The effort to 'educate' didn't work any too well.
When my brother recently passed away, we were still in the process of letting family know, when someone put the word out on Facebook... and we had numerous upset family members calling us with, "Why didn't you let me know!" within moments. We were TRYING. It was a horrible way to learn of a family member's death. We were having to make apologies as well as give out information.

Some things need to be left to the owner of the information to share. My parents should of been allowed to share the tragic news of Roger's passing before it was spread by others.
Don't share news that is not your news to share! If someone wants you to know that they are expecting a baby... they will tell you! It is THEIR choice to share on  social media, or not! Perhaps they have reason not to make public announcements of things once held in strictest privacy.

Common courtesy would also hold that if one receives a gift, one would thank, or at least acknowledge the gift, to the giver.  It seems that very few people send out Thank You notes these days, but even a call or an email to let the sender know that a gift arrived would be the courteous thing to do.
 As a child, I had to write Thank You notes for gifts received on birthdays or at Christmas. With  smaller children, if the parent doesn't write a note for the child, an email or phone call would be nice. A photo of the child with the gift is a treasure! If one intends to acknowledge a gift via social media such as Facebook, one might consider posting a picture/ acknowledgement on the senders 'wall', not simply on ones own wall, where it might be buried among dozens of other posts... if one happens to be a person who posts quite a few items in one day.

That's all from the soapbox today.