After Mass, our parish offers coffee & donuts in the community center as a way of encouraging fellowship among parishioners. As a privilege, my children get to have a donut assuming they've behaved themselves during Mass. It's not an explicit bribe, but they do know that we go home straight after Mass without getting one when they are naughty. The Alfie Kohns of the world may object to this practice, but it really does work!
Anyways, we had to get home because DH was going to a networking brunch with a grad school classmate so we took the donuts with us out to the car rather than staying to socialize. I put DS' on top of the bulletin on the car roof while I was getting him into his car seat. A big gust of wind blew them onto the ground. Being 20 mos, he immediately started howling. DD (age 4 3/4) saw that he was upset at the loss of his donut and without anyone prompting her to, offered him the rest of hers! :-)
I was so proud of her for doing this! In our homeschooling, I talk a lot about Christ's teaching us to love one another as He loves us. I try to model kindness and empathy for our children, though being human it can be hard at times. I felt so grateful that God allowed me to see that my efforts are indeed making a difference in my children's lives :-)
1 comment:
Oh how nice! Must have been something about church today. In my [almost] 4 year old's class, they made some kind of snack. He was eating it in the car on the way home, and decided to share it with his 19 month old brother. I feel so good when I see kids doing good sharing!
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