14 Kids Whose Parents Found Out Later What They’d Done: a Seat at Lunch and a Ghost-Shaped Sandwich

Proud dad moment today. My 10yr old son saw a new kid sitting by himself. Another friend and he decided to hang out with him over lunch. He got this lovely note at the end of the day.

The note:

“Sitting with me outside felt better than anything, thank you so much I would like to ask you. If I can start joining you guys outside.”

“My 5 year old wants to be a chef, so he made a ‘charcuterie board’ for his little sister tonight”

He helped me with a big charcuterie spread last week and has been talking about it ever since. Tonight he wanted to make one for dinner for him and his little sister. He was so proud of the “fancy cheese” and kept checking that everything looked right. It was gone in minutes, but I think this one’s going to stick with me for a while.

The pepperoni folds I did the first one and then he did the next two by himself. The provolone flower was all him. He didn’t like the hole so he dropped in the strawberry.

The string cheese flowers were all his idea. He wanted to make it look fancy. Him and his sister were discussing the board as they ate it. Her suggestion was more "bapes"(aka grapes).

“My son’s teacher told me he looks out for a little girl who just moved from Venezuela who doesn’t speak English yet. I am so proud!”

My son, (almost 7) looks out for his non-English speaking classmate.

I cried at the parent teacher conference when she told me and then sent me this photo.

The matching shirts is definitely perfect!

Recently a fellow parent whose kiddo was being weirdly bullied by a third kid messaged me to tell me that MY kid saw what was happening and yelled “STOP, that’s not ok! Stop!” Which was loud enough to get an adult involved and now the issue is being handled.

Knowing my kid stepped up to and say something wasn’t ok, and they needed help — that means the world to me. I don’t care about grades, I care that I’m raising good humans. This was better than any report card or certificate of achievement.

Went in for a conference with the kindergarten teacher and after we covered the academic stuff, the teacher said, “I have to tell you something.”

“You know she’s the social leader. You know she’s the one all the kids want to be friends with. There is a boy in the class....” (oh, [no, no, no], please don’t tell me she’s the mean girl. That kid is autistic....)

“She decided he needed a friend. She asked to sit next to him at his table. She has made the entire class adapt their recess games so that he can play. She sticks up for him. If something bothers him, she makes sure it isn’t an issue. The entire class follows her lead. I can never comment on another child but anyone can observe that he used to be in our classroom one hour a day and now he is here full time.”

(Teacher is CRYING at this point.) “If she does nothing else, ever, she has changed one life.”

Note: I found out later that “if something bothers him” was a specific color that freaked him out. She got all the kids to get rid of that color crayons, colored pencils, and got permission from the teacher to take down everything on the walls that had that color. Kids also completely stopped wearing that color shirt because she made sure they understood that it hurt him. Meltdowns dropped dramatically and they were able to mainstream him 100%.

“My son (16) made his father cry today!”

Our son has just finished his second week of his first job, hasn’t even gotten his paycheck yet! I caught his eye to remind him to say Happy Father’s Day and he laughed, then pulled a card out from his bag and said, “Happy Father’s Day!”

It was a superhero card, juvenile, but the kind of dorky thing my husband loves. Inside was a [video game] gift card. My son said, “Now you can get that stupid skin you want!” Laughing, he went to get changed.

My husband looked at me and had tears running down his cheeks with a huge smile, “I can’t believe he did that.”

My kid is pretty socially anxious. Having a job, going into [the store] and buying the cards are all big things for him. This was a huge deal. I’m so freaking proud of him I could bust!

“What my eight-year-old packed me for lunch today”

Olivia’s eight-year-old daughter asked to make a spooky lunch for Olivia, just like the ones Olivia makes for her. Olivia opened it in the car at lunchtime: two notes, one reading “love you more,” a favorite pack of fruit snacks, spooky popcorn and chips, the little mummies they had made the night before, and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich cut into the shape of a ghost.

There was even an orange the girl had tried to turn into a jack-o’-lantern. One last surprise: she had filmed herself making the lunch and asked Olivia not to watch the video until after eating.

“My son lost his first tooth on the school bus today. An older girl gave him this tiny container to keep it safe.”

Later when I looked at it closer, I realized it’s not just a random doll accessory, but a specific “tooth saver” box. I’m now utterly amused by the possibility that this 12-year-old just walks around with a handful of these in her bag, prepared for dental emergencies like some kind of tooth fairy assistant.

I found that it’s sold in bulk [online]. But who needs these handy and in bulk?! Party favors from a dentist-theme party maybe?

“Tell the parents, praise that child!”

Today at [a theme park], my 4yo wanted to build a boat. An older child, about 9 or so, came up to my boy and asked if he could help. He then proceeded to help my child, bring him to where they release the boats and talked to him the whole 15-20mins. He was so kind throughout while I stepped back and just observed.

When the parents of the older child came by, I told them how wonderful their son has been towards my son. They thanked me and said they don’t usually get praises about their child from others.

If you see a child being kind and lovely, tell their parents. I’m sure they’d love hearing it!

“Moment of pride”

I have a 13-year-old daughter and we’ve struggled with financials so we were unable to afford the luxury of a new bicycle for her. We heard about a program in the city we live where we could donate her current (too small) bike and get another bike that fits her.

When we donated her bike she felt that she should help out with the charity and we offered to volunteer our time. She watched as all of the first bikes and best ones left to new homes, helping the kids and telling them how awesome their choices for a new ride were. Then her time came, she had the slightly older bikes to choose from and she made her choice without complaints.

Fast forward to the next day when I receive a call from the organizer asking if he gave my info to one of the volunteers that saw how hard she worked because they wanted to surprise her. When they showed up, brand new bike in hand, we were blown away and my daughter was a puddle of sincere thankfulness. Her first thought was, “How am I going to pay this forward?”

When my daughter was young I was trying to teach her the value of money and decided to start giving her an allowance. She had a few tasks to do around the house and afterwards on the weekends before we would go out, I’d give her $5.

I explained that because she helped out and did her chores, she had earned money to spend on whatever she wanted. She happily accepted and stashed her money in her room, I thought nothing of it.

Later that evening before I tucked her in to bed after reading to her, she goes to her money jar, pulls out $2 and hands it to me, and explains that it’s for being a good daddy. After I got the money, I gave her a hug and told her I loved her. When she was asleep I put the money and some more in her jar.

“Proud Dad Moment”

A speech/language specialist with new student came to my daughter’s class to visit. Her teacher asked a couple students to play with the new student and they did not want to. My daughter asked to play with the new student and I received the message above.

I’ve never been prouder.

Not every kid will get straight As, not every kid will throw a touchdown pass, not every kid will be prom king/queen. But every kid can choose to be kind. And my kid chose that today.

The SLP definitely deserves praise. She has a very demanding job and took time out of her day to send this amazing message.

“Found out my 11-year-old daughter is glueing my lunch bag notes inside her school binder.”

The fact that she keeps em makes me incredibly happy. Just knowing she reads em is enough but seeing this validated why I do it for sure!

Def her keeping em. I couldn’t imagine not putting one in her lunch now. She loves em too much to miss it!

I will keep doing it until she tells me to stop!

My son is making a book for his mom to tell her how much he loves her.

He’s still pretty young and just learning to read and write. So slowly, like, over the course of the last few weeks, he’ll bring a book up to an adult and ask them to help him read and then ask randomly, “Is the word ’amazing’ on this page? Where? Oh great, is that the word I’m pointing to?”

Then he disappears for a few minutes, then the cycle will start again with another word.

Slowly, he’s writing a book for her, one word at a time.

I know because I followed him one time recently and saw he was writing something in a book, then happened to check it out when he was asleep. So now I know his secret. He was up to about two pages and it’s really sweet.

I don’t know how much longer until he’ll deem it finished. But I’m sure I’m the only adult who knows what’s up.

When that dad wrote his post, the book was about two pages long, and the boy’s mom had no idea it existed. That’s how parents usually hear about their kids’ kindness: late, by accident and often from someone else.