Teaching My Child a Lesson in Giving

--by gwboocat, posted May 10, 2008

We were at my son's elementary school helping out at their annual fundraising event. In the course of the evening, somehow my family ended up winning not one, not two, but THREE separate raffles! We were so surprised!

Since I had given the raffle ticket money to my son in order to purchase the raffle tickets, I decided that this would be an excellent opportunity for him to learn the joy of doing a kind act and handing out a smile card to someone.

The family at the table next to ours had been there all evening. They had purchased many more raffle tickets than we had, and, of course, they hadn't won any of the raffles. So, I let my son pick one of the prizes that we had won -- all were gift cards for restaurants that he liked, by the way. After deliberating a long time (he's an only child and sometimes his selfishness can get in the way of decisions such as this) he chose one.

My son then went up to that family and give them the raffle prize to the chosen restaurant with a smile card on top. They were sooooo grateful! And now my son is excited and trying to think of more ways in which my family can pass out the smile cards -- he just LOVES it now!

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Posted by gwboocat
May 10, 2008
Comments (5)

Readers Comments

lovebug wrote: Good habits are hard to break. Your son is already learning how to be kind and think of others, thank you for teaching him while he is young

katlampi wrote: That is wonderful that you teach your son about giving and kindness, and that he gets to experience the reaction that this elicits from others! I am sure that table of fellow-raffle-ticket-purchasers were quite excited and surprised!

JuneBug wrote: I think children are naturally born selfish and need to be taught life is not about them...You did a WONDERFUL job!!!! I commend you! :}

lmil1954 wrote: That was a great thing you did...rather you had your son do. Great lesson in love.

sanserif wrote: It guess it is quite difficult to make a child understand the importance of giving...like Junebug remarked, they are so wrapped up in their own likes and interests...Indulging him and making him keep the "prize" could have been easy...(after all he won it!) Hats off to you for persuading him to share his raffle prize and experience the joy in giving...

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