How sad is this? Parents all over America are paying experts to have manners taught to their children.

And while the prospect of a nation filled with polite children ’tis a consummation devoutly to be wished, here’s the sad part: The reason parents are paying for those lessons, the experts say, is because they no longer have the time, the energy or the ability to do it themselves.

So hundreds of entrepreneurs — described as Emily Posts for a new age — now are conducting classes on etiquette and manners for children.

Some of them are geared toward teaching children how to dine at a fine restaurant without trashing the joint and sending other diners screaming for the exits. Those lessons definitely are important for parents who are too busy to teach their children that it’s impolite to stick one’s caviar up one’s nose. Or up one’s brother’s nose.

Others, however, teach what used to be considered the bare basics of behavior.

Etiquette Moms, for instance, offers online certification for manners teachers, with prices ranging from $250 to $1,250. Among the lessons teachers will learn, the site notes, is how to instruct children “to properly say please, thank you and you’re welcome.”

In Florida, Etiquette Manor charges $285 per child for five one-hour classes. They’re necessary, its founder declares, because we no longer live in a time in which you can tell your children they have to behave in a certain way “just because.”

A New York City instructor even avoids using words such as “manners” or “etiquette.” Instead, she advises telling children that they are “building the brand called you.” Whatever that means.

Apparently their mother and I had entirely too much time on our hands when we were raising our children, because we never were too busy to remind them to say “please,” “thank you” or “you’re welcome.” Even if we had to do it 30 or 40 times a day. We were, I guess you could say, “nags” about it.

But nagging, of course, is pretty much what parenthood is all about. Children aren’t born with the instinct to wash behind their ears, pick up their toys or say “please,” “thank you” and “you’re welcome.” Besides, I’ve always thought “just because” was a perfectly acceptable explanation for whatever it was I expected my children to do.

Perhaps it really does take a village to raise today’s child, but it really only takes a caring parent or two to teach a child to say “please,” “thank you” and “you’re welcome.”

Although maybe it does take an expert to explain where to stick one’s caviar.