Thank you to a thoughtful mother

 This is a note of gratitude to a mother at my son’s school. I haven’t met her. She doesn’t know it, but an action of hers has probably reinforced my son’s passion for the environment -- for life.

I’ve blogged previously about 7 year-old Luca’s concern for eco issues -- or maybe he just has eco-issues. He usually keeps it pretty quiet.  Only members of our household seem to bear the brunt of his: “HEY!! Turn that TAP OFF when you’re BRUSHING!” accompanied by a frenzied sprint down the hall and frown-filled, bionic tap-turning. Last winter, on a freezing, sleet-filled day, while relaxing in front of the fire with warm scones, he came up with the bright idea of a family visit to the beach to clean up rubbish. My reply, gazing up from my book through a mouthful of tea and scone, was something like: “Hiimmmphf, waat a wonful idea.  Leths go when ith sunny an’ our fingerth and noseths won’t fall orf.” To my shame, I never fulfilled on the promise.

So I can imagine his excitement seeing a small pile of trash on the pavement on the way home from school a couple of days ago. I heard about it this morning when he casually said “Oh yeah… I might be getting a Principal’s Award.” I stopped in my tracks. A Principal’s Award is a rare and much-honored thing. Misty-eyed parents receive a special invitation to the school assembly to see their proud child shaking the principal’s hand, being given this venerable certificate. 

Luca said he saw some fellow school-kids kicking and scattering mailbox flyers which were lying on the ground.  (Thankfully) he didn’t make a fuss, but quietly picked up the flyers -- with the kids looking on -- and found a rubbish bin to put it in. Watching this was another mother in her car, waiting for her kids. She asked Luca’s name, then phoned the school and told them about his actions. 

I know what it’s like when you’re frantically rushing around after school to kids’ activities, then getting school bags unpacked, homework done and dinner cooked. I don’t know if it was that time of day she phoned.  Frankly, I can’t think of many times in the day where making such a non-essential phone call would take priority over the hundreds of things there are to do in a mother’s life. For Luca and our family it was like receiving a very personal and lovely thank-you note from a stranger.  Justine (I hope I have your name right) – thank you. Your generosity has inspired me to take that extra step when I ‘catch’ a child doing something good.

When I told him I was going to write a thank you to Justine, Luca advised me that he might have it wrong about the Principal’s Award. I mean, all he did was pick up a bit of trash. Perhaps, but when I rang the school to ask the mother’s name, the secretary (who I also don’t know) answered the phone and said “Oh YES!!  I heard about that!”  It was a tiny action on Luca’s part, resulting in a larger action by an adult provoking acknowledgement from his school by immediately telling his teacher and praising him. What a powerful formula for a community to reinforce the next generation’s love for our environment.

Luca is happy, award or no award – it was a very small incident for him and he’s pleasantly surprised by the fuss.  I’ve planned a 'well done!' family dinner.  Guess we’d better take him to the beach first!

Comments

[Christy the Mommy-Muse]

I love hearing about small actions that make a profound difference in our lives. It is tremendously inspiring to know that tiny steps that only take a couple of minutes can have results far beyond anything we might have thought!