3.) Write about a time you saw someone doing something kind for someone else. (inspired by Gigi’s Ramblings)
I’m aware that someday my kids will prefer their friends over me. I mean…it’s hard to IMAGINE, because I’m very current and hip, but I know that at one point in my life my friends meant more to me than anything in the world. So it’s bound to cycle back around.
In the mean time, because I believe they’ll have a significant impact on their lives, I have to try to raise my kids to be kind and to pick good friends. How do you even DO that?
Last year I took a frantic Maile to school. She gets frantic about going to school every once in awhile the way a child might get frantic about being thrown into shark infested waters without a life jacket. The compassionate mother in me wants to keep her home during these spells while the disciplined mother needs her to know she can’t choose not to go to school every time it feels uncomfortable to her.
On this particular day I told her she had to go and I was sticking to my guns.
She hated me.
I hated me.
It was miserable. I forced her out of the car and she walked screaming and crying to the fence where her class waited for their teacher.
My heart hurt watching her…knowing how scared she was and feeling like I had just abandoned her.
And then this beautiful thing happened, a little blond girl walked up to crying Maile, squatted down next to her and grabbed her hand. It was the sweetest thing. She didn’t have to do that, but some wonderful mother out there taught her daughter what it means to be kind to people who are hurting and that little girl swooped right in to help.
Hand in hand, they walked to class together.
Thank you thank you thank you!
I knew in that moment, Maile was learning she could find comfort in a friend. And I was learning that it was okay to let go just a smidge and allow her friends to take care of her.
I just hope her future friends are as kind to her as that one was.
Now it’s your turn!
Choose a prompt, post it on your blog, and come back to add your name to the link list below. Be sure to sign up with the actual post URL and not just your basic blog URL (click on the title of your post for that URL). For good comment karma try to comment on the three blogs above your name!!
The Prompts:
1.) Share a story from fourth grade. (inspired by Wild Life in the Woods).
2.) Describe where you were when you met a boy. (inspired by Sadie Dear)
3.) Write about a time you saw someone doing something kind for someone else. (inspired by Gigi’s Ramblings)
4.) Name something you swore you’d never do when you had kids, but now find yourself doing. (inspired by Not So Newly)
5.) List the songs that tell your life story (so far). (inspired by Moments That Define Life)
{ 41 comments… read them below or add one }
That was so sweet. *tear*
I love that! It’s always nice to hear the good stories especially considering we are usually bombarded with the negative.
AWWWW!!! That would make me want to stalk the little girl just so I could tell her mom “Thank you for raising such a kind daughter”! It’s nice to hear a good story.
What a sweet story!
Oh, this made me tear up! A good friend is hard to come by. I hope I raise one.
Oh, Kat, what a sweet story! I sure could have used a friend like that all through school. My mom could identify with you, as she had to force me to school many days. That little blonde girl’s mom is to be congratulated! Hopefully, Maile will find school a little more bearable now.
I actually cornered that little girl’s mom and thanked her for raising such a thoughtful child. She said her daughter has always been a ‘caretaker’ type and that she wasn’t surprised to hear she swooped in to take care of her classmate. :)
I’m sniffling over here. What a sweet story. Makes a mama proud of that little girl being raised right!
I know! And I think we so often ridicule the way another woman is parenting her kids, we need to celebrate those who are doing a great job more often!
Very sweet. Love those kids. Love good friends. xo
What a kindhearted little girl. Everyone could use a friend like that, at any age!
I couldn’t agree more!
Those moments are so hard for the Momma. I love the opportunity to see little angels at work on Earth. Heartwarming story!
That’s really what it felt like! Like this little girl at her core was just a kind soul. I hope she never loses that.
I have one who sometimes hates going to school like that. It’s so awful. I’m always tempted to let him stay home but am afraid he’d never go again if I let him get away with it even once.
That’s exactly my problem too. I went to a therapist for her and she actually encouraged me to go ahead and allow Maile to have a day off once a month or so. I haven’t done it because I’m afraid she’ll catch on and start requesting them when she doesn’t NEED them, but it was nice to get that okay from a professional. :)
I’ll have to keep that in mind. My school-hater has only missed one day since he started his new school in January. The problem with him was that he had a terrible experience in the fall and then was home with me for a month. He’d like to just stay home forever. But even though I’m a former teacher, I do not want to homeschool! But maybe a day off would be okay.
SO sweet.
That brought tears to my eyes. My 7 year old daughter suffers from anxiety and sometimes I have to force her to go to school. I always feel horrible and I worry about her all day even though her teacher always reports that she was fine as soon as she started interacting with her friends. The balancing act is so hard when you’re a mama.
It’s the worst feeling and totally ruins my day when that happens. Unfortunately, Maile doesn’t really improve at school. She spends the day completely withdrawn and it’s awful! I REALLY hope this is just a phase and she’ll learn to cope with school…otherwise we might have a really long road ahead of us!
Damn, you got me early this morning with the sweetness. Don’t do it again.
And how many times during motherhood do we ask “How do you even DO that”?
I’m teary. What a wonderful story and what a good reminder that we have to let them go little by little so they will have formed a life of their own.
That is so unbeleivably sweet.
I have had those days too when I’ve had to make my daughter go to school. It’s hard, but we have to do it for their own good. They will thank us one day (okay, maybe not until after therapy).
pure loveliness … kindness truly does make the world go round. Or at least make life a little sweeter.
What a sweet story!! I’m assuming by your picture that they’ve remained friends…?
Way to go! make me cry in the morning. ….On a better note, my children, son 16 and daughter 21, not only still think I’m cool but share their friends with me and I share mine with them. This means for now, they happily bring their friends home for meals and camping trips and christmas eve family events and my friend, they always include my kids in craft nights and girlfriend get together (even my son,we are teaching him right), we are all just that cool.. What I’m saying is you can and probably will have it all! Your just that cool!
I can’t help but think that’s EXACTLY how things will go here. My kids will adore me dammit! And if they don’t…well I guess I’ll just buy them a bunch of stuff until they do again. That seems healthy.
Now that is just the sweetest thing ever. It is my hope that I can teach my children to be kind to others like Maile’s friend. Right now, if someone is hurting… they just stare at that person.
It takes some courage to be proactive and do something!! My kids sit and stare too…and so do I sometimes!
Between two and three Cady cried almost every single day at daycare drop off. It was heartbreaking for me, and I guess for her too. Every day her little friend would scooch over next to her and wrap her arm around her and tell her it would be okay. Now they are great big first graders, almost second graders, and they are still friends.
SO incredibly sweet. I adore stories like these. My son has been both the friend and the friended.
That is such a sweet story. Very inspiring for us mamas. That’s the kind of friends I want my kids to be and to have.
On a lighter note, that hot dog wiener is totally photo bombing those girls :)
The hot dog SO photo bombed that photo!!!
Absolutely adorable. I hope there are many more kids like Maile’s friend out there!
What a kind little girl. I think every mom hopes that their kid will meet a good friend like that in life – no matter how old they might be at the time. It’s hard enough for us moms to let them go, but knowing a good friend is not too far makes it easy for us step back and let them grow up. ;) Love this post.
That is such a stinking sweet story. Bless that little girl’s heart!
Oh, I love this story. It is so nice to hear a story about kids being nice to each other, rather than kids being bullied.
That’s true! I didn’t think about it when I was writing it, but it really is a counter-bully post. We need to highlight the great things kids are doing for each other more often!
Awww!! I love it!
Such a nice story…
Love this story. What an awesome random act of kindness!