Learning by Good Example

Sometimes, just sometimes, my kids surprise me. Now, remember, there are good surprises and bad surprises. This surprise happened to me the other day. Let me start with the back story:

I was at my parent's house with Ethan and Andrew and as we were on our way out, my dad came home. Andrew asked him to show Ethan the Spiderman video on his computer and before we knew it, we were hanging out for about another 1/2 hour (not just because I wanted a cappuccino, either...although that was a plus). At the end of our time together my dad gave the boys a few dollars to put in the church's annual "dare to care" bank (used to collect money for an African orphanage during the month of November). My dad explained that he puts money in it every day and encouraged them to do the same so we can raise money for people who need it.

Now FAST FORWARD......

An hour later I was in the kitchen preparing dinner and I heard Ethan in the living room, "Mom, I am putting money in this bank" (referring to the dare to care bank.) I said, "Ethan, where did you get the money?" "My bank." "How many dollars did you get, Ethan?" "I got 3."

I just smiled and said, "that is a good thing to do."

A few minutes later I realized why he did it, it hadn't registered right away. I remembered how my dad had given him a couple dollars out of his pocket and encouraged him to put in the bank and now Ethan took the initiative to take money out of his own bank and put it in the Dare to Care bank.

That was a good surprise.