Kindness from little ones

building_with_lego

A couple of Christmases ago my children wrote a card for each child in their class, took them into school and began bringing home cards their friends had "sent" them. A few days later my then five-year-old rushed home and headed straight for the card box, writing frantically. I asked him what he was doing as he'd already written to all his friends and he explained that the new boy in his class "hadn't had as many cards as everyone else" so he was sending him some extras. He proceeded to write five extra cards to this one child in order that he would have a similar number to the other children in the class.
I felt my heart get a bit bigger that afternoon.

MamaMoo_2

A few weeks back, DH popped out to the shops not long after the kids had gone to bed.
As he drove away, DS1 called me upstairs. When I got to his bedroom door he said "mommy, I shall come downstairs with you now!"
I said "no, honey, it's bedtime, give me a kiss and off to sleep with you"
To which he replied "but mommy, daddy has gone and now I'm the man of the house. It's my job to look after you, so let's go downstairs and have a nice cup of tea and a cuddle!"
He's 4 in a fortnight, bless him. So adorable.

And there's a little boy at DS1's nursery who is always chatting to DS in the playground. The day before my birthday last year I had my hair cut and dyed, albeit nothing special, and bought a new dress, again, nothing unusual or special.
I'm quite fat and hate the way I look, but on my birthday I dropped DS at nursery and this little boy ran up to my son and said "wow! Your mommy looks like a superstar princess! You're so lucky to have such a beautiful mommy, is she famous?"
Bless his little cottons, walked around for the rest of the day feeling like a million pounds!

Kaz2904

Last year, I picked the children up from school on a Thursday. I had worked on the Wednesday night and during my shift had started to become sniffly. By the time I got home on the Thursday morning, I felt ghastly. Anyhoo, got the children and brought them home. Sent a text to the Akela at cubs to ask if he had enough helpers for that night as I didn't think I could manage a 4 mile walk and he replied that the weather had saved me, torrential rain was forecast (thought it was a bit off, as it was blazing sunshine at that point but lo and behold, it hammered down!).
DD (11 at that point and generally a grump and smart mouth on her) realised I was really, really not very well and herded me upstairs and into bed. She bent down and took my shoes off for me , I would never have managed that myself but didn't even ask her.


We took the cubs on spring camp in March and had another group with us. We split into groups and took them on a hike. I was not supposed to be hiking but the adult who was about to walk off with the 8 little ones didn't yet have his scouting CRB back so I went too. As we were meandering around, it became apparent that we had to cross a bridge which goes across the M5 motorway on it's split section just south of Gordano. I hate bridges and I hate heights. I also had torn ligaments in my hip so was really struggling with walking up and down hills at the time. When we got to the bridge, I realised it was very uphill and very long and very high . I said to the cubs that I had to walk really fast as I didn't like bridges.
There were only 2 of "my" cubs in our group but when we got to the other side, they were all saying "Wow, Kaz2904, you did really well! Well done, you should be proud of yourself, look, you did it!" And other words of encouragement. So lovely, as they were all young cubs, only just 8 years old.


I get a lot of pleasure from watching children learning kindness, they have such simple ways of making big gestures and such simple things that they do can mean so much. I am blessed to have seen the cubs I help out blossom from an unruly bunch of kids that we dreaded taking anywhere to a group of kid who behaved so very well when we went on our summer camp. I love hearing them talk to each other in the tent at night. Often, one of them will become homesick and you can hear them all reassuring the sad one. They don't come to get a leader unless they can't settle their friends themselves which is so very lovely .

SingleSue

Not young children but almost adult ones....

My youngest son is complex autistic and 16. His little circle of friends are absolutely amazing in the way they deal with him and pick up all the little signals that all is not well with him.

For example, he is in the midst of GCSEs at the moment, we turned up in the car park for one of his exams and he gets out of the car very unsettled, very lost and not at all sure of what should be happening. Two of his friends on seeing this, broke off from the group and joined him, making a joke about the fact they were also lost (they were not but knew it would make him feel uncomfortable if he knew they were doing something special), took him under their wing and sorted him out.

They are like little mother (or father) hens with him, very very protective and very intuitive to his needs but also very sensitive to the fact that he doesn't like being different, so they are careful that any help they give him is not obvious or over the top, so that he feels comfortable.

Another example is toileting, they know he doesn't use normal public toilets and will only use a disabled toilet if someone stands outside and worried for his health on a recent cinema visit as he needed the loo (the jiggling about was a huge clue :rotfl:), the girls said they needed the loo and would he mind standing outside the toilet with one of the girls as company whilst the other went to the toilet and then they would wait for him if he felt the need to go too. It worked beautifully, with the girls waiting outside, he went to the toilet much to the relief of his friends and all without him realising what they had done and why they had done it.

These friends are both male and female and all 16 or almost 16.

They have now made him feel so comfortable and at ease in their company that he has now decided to go to the school prom, something even 3 months ago he was absolutely refusing to go to due to the noise, too many people etc.

Waves_and_Smiles

Such lovely stories, these are warming my heart so much

What great friends your son has singlesue! Mind you, he must be lovely for them to care about him so much.

One of my very occasional carers is my 15 year old niece. I didn't ask her to be but she started turning up to help with my housework off of her own back and now helps me wash and dress too. She tends to come and visit and sort me out then we sit and look at her latest selfies on various social media sites and discuss how she can do her hair and make up next time She also manages to get in a few moans of "How unfair!" her dad is so I do my best to see both sides.

She is a wonderful girl and I think the world of her, even though she knows I have mental health problems she treats me mostly as one her mates.

candlelight_2013

What a lovely thread with heartwarming stories.

We have 3 beautiful grandchildren, 2 grown up and 1aged 14. They have had many problems with their father (son in law) but thankfully we have had a lot of input in their lives.

It has been a particularly difficult time for the eldest recently, and my daughter knows we do not approve of the way DGD has been treated(she is 21).

It was my birthday last Saturday and she and her boyfriend came to tea. They bought me some beautiful silver earrings and a lovely bouquet of flowers. The best thing, she wrote in her card "Nan have a lovely birthday and thank you for always being there for us" I could have cried, what a beautiful thing to say.

I always told her from a young age that she could always come to us if she had a problem and we would always try to help her.

Candlelightx

monty-doggy

A Wayne in a manger. :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Adorable!

pollypenny

What a lovely thread!

And some Tory git, well the head of The Independent Schools Association, claims that state school children are amoral!

heartbreak_star

I think sometimes amidst media horror stories of children bullying and attacking people, we forget the little shining stars in our own lives

Such lovely stories

HBS x

stripes

Love the stories.
My 5 year old boy is autistic and non verbal and his little sister who is 3 will wipe his tears when he cries, hold his hand when walking in the park and make sure he stays in his seat when we go to Maccy D while I buy the food. She is the best I'm very proud of her.