Some of you know about my other blog, where I'm recording my 365 acts of kindness for the year. J knows I'm doing this too. I want to write about what effect it's had on him som far, after only a month and a half.
To clarify, I've always tried to instill in him a sense of kindness, just because. That's my reason: just because. So he knows how I try to treat people and he was really excited when I told him about my resolution. Since I've started, Jimmy has been performing his own kindnesses too.
He comes home from school and tells me he was really nice to the boy in his class with autism, because he asked everyone to move because he was trying to cross the room and getting upset. He also takes activity books in to share with his classmates for free time, and shared one of his granola bars because another child had finished his lunch and was still hungry.
I love hearing about what he does at school, but it's even more amazing to see what he does when we are out somewhere. He helped a little boy at the library when he dropped a toy and couldn't reach it. He asks if we can shovel someone's driveway whenever it snows, and he's started bringing in recycling bins for people as he walks past. He even put a dollar from his allowance into a donation box for the Salvation Army, without being prompted. These were all his own ideas, just because.
Whatever behavioural issues J has from day to day are small compared to the things I see him doing to be nice. Part of the reason I started the other blog was to put into practice what people keep talking about, with filling buckets and passing it on and such. I wanted people to think about how easy it is just to be kind, and my kids are picking up on it. If no one else gets the message, that's enough for me.
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