Act of Kindness

On Sunday, we went to an Easter egg hunt hosted by a local college.  We went last year and had a lot of fun.  This year, the college had the hunt in a different location.  They placed eggs all over a field.  Before the hunt started, all of the children had to wait by a gate.    

We had some fun waiting.  Adelaide was keeping us entertained.

She even started climbing the fence and actually made it to the top before she asked for some help.

The three year olds and under did their egg hunt first which meant that Adelaide had a chance to get a bunch of eggs.  

After the three year olds and under did their egg hunt, everyone else had to wait by the gate and once the kids (ages 3 and up) were through the gate they just ran around collecting eggs.

In true Hunger Games style, we told Oliver to ignore the eggs at the beginning of the gate and run to the end of the field where he would have plenty of eggs to choose from.  Once he got inside the field, he did just that and managed to grab some eggs.

It became obvious very quickly that the kids near the back of the line to go through the gate were not going to get any eggs so Oliver, Adelaide, Chris and I stepped aside to watch everyone else because we felt that Oliver and Adelaide had enough eggs in their basket.

As we watched, we started to see some kids looking really sad and some were crying.  We told Oliver and Adelaide that some of the kids hadn't gotten any eggs because by the time they got onto the field, all of the eggs were gone.  We waited a few seconds, mentioned to Adelaide and Oliver how many eggs they had found, and waited again.  Oliver then told us that he decided he could give an egg to someone who hadn't received one.  Chris and I watched as Adelaide and Oliver walked around the field giving away most of their eggs.  I must admit that I was touched.  Their generosity was not forced, it was from the heart.  They knew that they needed to share their eggs.  When my children are having particularly stubborn, self-absorbed days, I sometimes worry that we've spoiled them or made them feel this sense of entitlement that they shouldn't be feeling at such a young age.  Watching them gracefully walk around the field and give away their eggs to other children reminded me that parenting is going to have its moments.  There will be the tough moments where I wonder how I will get through the day and then there will be the touching moments that really grip me and make me want to throw my arms around them with complete love (which I did after the egg hunt) and tell them how proud I am of them.

Because I am.