Random Acts of Kindness

As a parent, we all look for ways to teach our children good habits.

Please and thank you.  Being polite to others.  Sharing, sympathizing, and doing good deeds.

One such lesson was embedded into my boys this weekend, thanks to a random act of kindness from a complete stranger.

Now, my boys are super sharp.  My oldest is now in First Grade and is getting better and better at math, writing, spelling and such.  His cognitive skills blow my mind away.  My youngest emulates his big brother, so you know he's sharper than the average 4-year old.

At one point they borrowed my phone to use the flashlight app.  It turned off, but they were able to find it quickly without a problem.

They also played my 'Cut the Rope' game and beat a few levels I was having trouble with...

So when a sweet old gentleman gave them a gift while at breakfast, they learned a valuable lesson and took it to heart.

The gifts came from a regular at the IHOP we were at.  He's a woodworker, and definitely looked the part.  He gave two toy cars to the waitress to bring over to the kids.

They were in awe.  Instantly it became their favorite toy, and were very grateful.  Their mom took them over to the man to say thank you, and he looked a little embarrassed (maybe he's not used to being thanked?).  The boys decided they were going to make him a thank you card and give it to him at a future visit.

I talked to my oldest to see if he learned something from the event:

Me:  Do you like your new toy?

Him:  Yeah, that was very nice of him.

Me:  It feels good when people do nice things for no reason, doesn't it?

Him:  Yeah.  (a few seconds later)  Daddy?  I want to do a nice thing for someone I don't know now.

I couldn't be prouder.  It feels good to be the recipient of a random act of kindness, but it feels just as good to be on the giving end.  Now that the seed is planted in his head, he will understand that lesson even more.

To the old man at the restaurant, thank you.  Thank you not only for the gifts (the craftsmanship is amazing and you do really good work), but thank you for helping teach my children a valuable lesson.  I don't get to see them nearly as often as I'd like, so I am not able to teach them life-lessons like this on a regular basis.

This was one of the biggies, and I got to help, thanks to you.  My kids will be better people thanks in part to you, and I will never forget this moment.