Tuesday, February 2

Tip

Tonight we were eating dinner at a theme BBQ joint before I had to go to water aerobics. Halfway through our meal an elderly man came up to our table and handed Mandolin $5 and said "You're such a good girl. You do a great job eating in public and we were so impressed. I hope you take this $5 and have a dessert, because you've earned it." He then shook our hands, told us we were great parents and walked away.

8 comments:

Brenda said...

well good for you. and mandolin.
isn't it too bad though that more parents don't teach their children manners.

Kathryn said...

what did Mandolin get for dessert?

Jilly said...

she had vanilla ice cream and some of the filling from a slice of pecan pie. the whipped cream and the top and crust of the pie went to her daddy.

Jenny Robin said...

nice

Catz said...

that was nice.my kids when they were little were very good in public. at home.... they were good most of the time. they didn't realyy do things that needed spanking or whatever but they had to be spoken to at times.

vq said...

Jilly, when you were a little girl, did you read the Beezus and Ramona (part of the Henry and Ribsy series) books by Beverly Cleary? I loved them, and then when Hallie came along she loved them and I read them all again, to her.

Your story reminded me so much of an episode in one of the Ramona books. The family is having hard times financially, and they are eating out in a restaurant, but they have ordered very, very cautiously, to save money. When they get ready to leave, they learn that an elderly gentleman they saw sitting alone in the restaurant has paid for their dinner because they're such a nice family.

I wish I'd remember to do "random acts of kindness" like that more often. Sometimes, they change everything!

Jilly said...

verb, we read some of the ramona forever and a few other beverly C books when we were little. over the past two years, people have done such nice things for us (mainly Mandolin) and it's mainly strangers, not people we know. i wish i'd thought of doing nice things like this more often before, but i know i'll be on the lookout to do nice things in the future.

one thing i know i can do is make a toy and blanket for homeless children. young children do not deserve the bad things that happen to them, and a blanket and toy can mean the world to them when they have no place to call home. my long-term project is to make a toy and blanket to donate in the name of every young child (person under 10) i'm closely related to. The count as of right now is 11, so it's a big long-term project, but i'm not giving myself a time limit accomplish it. I even thought of sending a book to go with the blanket and toy, but I'm not sure if they'd give the books out too.

vq said...

That is a LOVELY thing to do. Having a "lovey" to give comfort is important to almost all tiny children, and you're right, no innocent baby deserves to live in poverty and want. (Don't try selling that idea to a Republican, though.) It warms my heart to think of some child snuggling with a blankie made by JIlly!