Manners were an integral part of character building. The children were taught to respect elders and behave properly with other people, and this remained the same despite the change in their status later in life. Along with manners came spirituality and religion. Though she learned about Christianity during her years in the US, she remained a devout Buddhist, and brought her children up in the Buddhist faith. However, she was clever enough to introduce Western religious rites such as bedtime prayers into their daily routine to make Buddhism more accessible to them. Instead of the usual Sanskrit incantations, they said their prayers in Thai, asking the Lord Buddha to protect them and lead them down the good and righteous path. Prayers would then be supplemented by stories of the life of the Buddha.