I talk a lot about kindness.

Partly because I find such great joy in making people happy, in being thoughtful and kind. Maybe that is a little bit selfish on my part because I like how offering kindness makes me feel too. But I really do feel like the world needs more nice people, more kindness, more empathy and more inclusion.

And it’s really not hard to be kind.

About a month ago, my son really reminded me how powerful kindness, empathy and inclusion can be. In fact, it was such a powerful moment, it made me lose my breath for a moment.

Some of you may already know that my husband is a chef. During Corona times, he spent a lot more time at home cooking which was great for us. We got used to having really great meals every night. But one night he had a meeting, so it was my turn to figure out dinner. I like to try new things too so I just went on Pinterest and I tried to find something. It was going to be simple but good, I hoped, and I was looking forward to preparing it.

As I was getting ready in the kitchen, I asked Madden if he wanted to help me. I was like, “Hey, do you want to make dinner with me?” It was rather spontaneous and I don’t know if I’ve ever asked him to help make dinner before. I actually expected him to say, “no thanks.” And that would have been fine. I just thought at that moment that I would rather share the experience with someone than make dinner alone.

He surprised me though. He said, “yeah.” He finished up his schoolwork, came over to where I was to attack the recipe with me. He knows what a recipe is and what we’d generally have to do, so I pulled up the recipe on the screen so we could split up the jobs. We approached making dinner that night as a team. I said, “I’ll cut this and you measure this” and we divided everything up that way. It was a really amazing way to work as a team to accomplish something. As we were making dinner, it also dawned on me the power of those little inclusive moments, not only for me, but for him as well. It was an evening filled with joy. And it ended up being really delicious. Everybody in our family liked it.

After dinner, while I was just sitting on the couch, my son looked over at me and said, “thanks for asking me to make dinner with you. I loved every minute of it.” And he really meant it. That moment meant as much to me as his saying yes to helping. So I thanked him for saying yes, and for telling me that he enjoyed it. 

This is what gratitude is. It’s been proven that the more gratitude you show for something, the more of that you actually attract. But, sometimes (many times) we take things for granted and we forget that gratitude part. What if we put that part first?

My son isn’t even 10 yet and I’m so grateful for his kindness and awareness of other people.

Sometimes the smallest act of kindness can make such a big impact on someone’s life or the world. It may just be a moment, but our life is made up of a whole bunch of small moments. And even though they’re small moments, they all add up, and they can lead to even bigger feelings in your life. So it’s important to realize how much every moment can matter, even the smallest ones sometimes.

My son recognized in that moment on the couch how it would make me feel, telling me that he enjoyed helping me. Sometimes my kids really make me just lose my breath like that. Parenting can be hard day to day; there’s so much to do. But then those moments happen…

My son WOWs me a lot with his sense of appreciation and awareness though. Every single time we take him to baseball practice, he thanks us. He actually says, “thanks for bringing me to practice.” When I take them, he recognizes that I don’t have to, even though I’m his mom. I could be doing other things and I’m choosing to be there with him. He realizes if people go out of their way for you, it’s kind to acknowledge and appreciate that. He also realizes not to take other people’s kindness for granted.

I’ll never forget when one day he just came and hugged me from behind. And I was just like, “what is that for?” He replied, “just for everything.” 

That was everything to me, this realization that I am truly raising kind humans that go out of their way to tell people how they feel. 

It amazes me that a child can have such awareness and appreciation for people — and for other people’s time. Not a lot of kids have an appreciation for others that way. I don’t even think most adults do. When he already acts this way, I think that he’s going to grow up and continue to appreciate other people and their time.

I have always said that if I could raise children that are just kind, they don’t need to be anything else. Just kind and aware of other things and people. Empathetic. It doesn’t matter what they want to pursue in school and as a career, as long as they are kind and become good adults. Those are the values that I really want my children to have. If you have that, you don’t need to do anything else. Because I feel like kindness carries you through life.

What was the last moment of kindness in your life that took you by surprise?