Our Future Feels Bright Today

Today was "Eat Lunch With Your _______- Grader" at Tot's school.  I didn't go last year.  Neither did Tot's dad.  We both had these pesky things called jobs that we couldn't get away from in the middle of the work day to eat lunch with our youngest.  It's not the first time that's happened with one of the kids, and it probably won't be the last.  But my mom was in town, so she joined Tot last year, and that worked out just fine for everyone.

This year, in contrast, Tot's dad and I both were able to eat lunch with him.  I picked up his favorite (Daphne's), and we went over to the school.

While we were waiting on the playground, watching the first-graders play, we noticed a little girl sitting at the edge of the track, crying.  I asked Tot who it was.  (Tot knows who everyone is, even kids I've never seen.  Even kids not in his class. He's very social.)  He knew who it was and posited that she was sad because no one was at the school to have lunch with her.  My throat got tight watching her.  I asked Tot if he wanted to invite her to eat with us, and without skipping a beat, he ran right over to her and asked her to join us.  He walked her over to us, introduced her, then invited her to go play with him on the playground.

When we got to the cafeteria, a group of girls at another table saw that she did not have her parents with her, and they called her over.  She looked at me, then at the other table, and then she nodded no.  We told her it was okay with us if she wanted to eat with her friends; we just wanted her to have a good lunch.  And off she went.

While we were discussing how impressive it was that this 6-year-old would stick to a commitment to eat with us - people who she doesn't really even know - instead of with her friends, another parent plopped down across from us.  She told us how impressed she was that Tot reached out to that little girl.  She said that she lots of parents go up to the child, but that Tot was the only kid who did -- and she thought that was pretty neat.

So today I'm feeling good about the future of our world.  With kids like Tot - who reach out to take care of those around him, and kids like this little girl - who honor even the tiniest of commitments, things look pretty bright.