Random Act of Kindness - to balance all the ranty threads, tell me of a random act of kindness that you have never forgotten.

[MmeLindor.]

There is a lovely thread in Classics about Random Acts of Kindness so I thought we could do with a lovely fluffy thread to distract us from the shooting and disembowelment going on at the moment.

I will start.

When DD was going through the "terrible twos", she had a tantrum at the supermarket. She lay on the floor and wept bitterly because I would not give her what she wanted it. I tried reasoning with her, I tried being stern, and finally I walked away.

The sound of her screams echoed in the supermarket, people were looking at us. I thought that they were judging me, thinking that I was a bad mother.

A man walked by with his two daughters - about 9 and 11yo they were. He stopped, patted my arm and said, "It is a phase. It passes. You are doing the right thing".

It meant so much to me, that I was not alone and that other people were not judging me but feeling sorry for me. And probably being thankful that their DC were past that stage.

Has a stranger ever done or said something nice to you that you still remember years later?

Oh dear, every time I come back to this thread I start to cry again!

when DH's mother passed away and we had to take in his teenage brother (we were only 25 ourselves at the time). A lovely woman and her mother used to pop by our house once a week and wash and iron all of our clothes. I dont think I ever told them how lovely it was. Not just to have our clothes laundered but for someone to reach out and understand how hard it was for us to take on the new 'parent' role.
We also frequently got homemade dinners from neighbours.

An lot of taxi drivers and midwives here :)

When DD1 was 2, I took her on a train ride to the next town. It was about 8.30 so lots of students and lots of officey commuters. Train late so everyone pissed off.
Several groups of the commuters carried on swearing very loudly about the late train, and one shoved me out of the way when the train did come.
The students were all being rowdy and swearing too, but stopped as soon as they saw us, and one lad smiled at DD and gave her his train ticket receipt so she'd have an extra ticket. She was so happy.

The mum at the school gate in DD1s first week at school, who told me not to worry that we'd all been there, as DD2 screamed horrendously for every single school run as it coincided with nap time and she wasnt happy. The mum and I are now good friends.

I was on a bus with DS and DP and when an elderly gentleman boarded I offered him my seat. He declined because his stop was just around the corner, but he launched into this heartfelt speech about "youth of today" and how I was a "special gem" and "one in a million".

I was so touched. My little act of selflessness impacted upon him and me, and I still see him from time to time. We always have a little chat!

What a lovely thread mine is that I was pregnant when I fainted out walking I came to to find a man sponging my face having carried me into the nearest cafe, i was barely conscious and he came with me to the hospital held my hand called my dp and then when dp arrived he simply vanished so I never got to say thank you I was so scared I never even asked his name, it turned out I was pre eclampsic and in premature labour and his actions saved my son I just wish I could tell that and thank him.

I marched in the Remembrance Parade last year at Whitehall. DH and I decided to make a weekend of it and we stayed in London in a hotel. The following morning I had to get from the hotel to Horse Guards Parade. I'm not very familiar with London and knowing the area would be coned off I asked the cab driver to get me as close as possible and point me in the right direction. He was lovely driving through all these little back streets trying to get me closer and closer.

He did really well, I was close enough to know where I was but when I went to pay he refused saying "this one's on me". I was so touched and a wee bit choked. Lovely man

Oddly, both of mine happened in Lidl.
A while ago DS was having a toddler meltdown and one of the shop assistants picked up an apple from the display, polished it on his sleeve and handed it to DS and just said "sssshhh" to me!

Today it was hammering down with rain and DS, DD and I were again in Lidl. As we walked out, a lady said to me "have you got far to go? I wondered if you'd all like a lift?" My car was in the car park so I politely declined but how sweet is that?!

I was also a bit as DS had just spent 10 minutes pelting up and down the aisles and DD was grizzling; I just couldn't believe that anyone would voluntarily choose to get into a car with us!

I boarded a train late at Kings Cross for a marathon journey to Edinburgh with my then 15mo DS with all the buggy paraphernalia etc, etc,... was trying to find our named single 'seat' in a jammed carriage whilst DS was having a strop and everyone was giving me absolute evils i.e. don't sit next to me with that 'thing'.

......2 youngish oxbridgeish men with laptops promptly got up and offered me BOTH of their seats on a packed carriage. I could have cried i was so thankful!

Train journey wasn't so awful after all (with cBeebies magazines, umpteen snacks to throw everywhere, iPad with Peppa pig etc!).

I've taken 36 hours to read every story here, and it was worth every minute if my precious spare time - what a beautiful thread!

I'll share one of mine:
About 10 years ago me and Dsis were staying in a cheap hotel somewhere in London so we could go to a gig in Hyde Park. After checking in to the hotel we spent a boozy afternoon pre-gig, then hailed a cab to Hyde Park. Our driver gave us his card and told us to call when we got out after the gig had finished, which we did. He told us he was clocking off and that he would take us back to the hotel free of charge, via all the famous landmarks. He was amazingly kind to us that night, and I still have his card somewhere.

And, I should add, it was about 1:30am and he'd done a long shift!

I had bought a 2 day ticket to cover my car at the station car park, as I had to stay overnight in London. When i got back to my car around 10 the next morning, there was an old lady trying to work out how to use the car park ticket machine. It had become so expensive, that you can only pay by card, and she had a handful of cash.

I called out to her and asked if she needed a ticket for the day. Yes, she replied, so I said here, have this and handed her. She was gobsmaked - it was worth about £8, and I was Bu**ered if South West trains were going to have it. Oh, its like my birthday, she said.

About 2 weeks ago, I was fumbling for change for a car park in town, and a car drew up and a lady called out that she had an hour left - did I want it? Well, blow me down - it was the same lady!!

So - what comes round, goes round!!

A homeless person was sat near the cash machine as I drew money out for a night out. I randomly gave him 20 quid, most peopl are horrified but it was the best 20 quid I ever spent. He looked so grateful

Sooo many tears reading all these...
I have a few to add...
When DD was born (EmC, 3 day labour, didn't sleep for 4 days, delirious) couldn't get her to latch on and she cried and I cried and it was horrendous, particularly as I had the bed nearest the nurses station and could hear them talking about me! A lovely bank nurse came in to talk to me, she didn't shove DD onto my nipple like the others or try and feed her formula, she just sat there and said the odd nice thing and made me a tea. Again I didn't get to thank her, but I remember her 5 years on.

Not so random but lovely, had been emailing an old friend and explaining how we were having our house repossesed etc. She sent me £20 and a book, it was such a lovely lovely thing.

Where I shop there is a lovely checkout lady with a name very similar to my DDs, DD adores her and always goes to say hello. This lady always stops whats she's doing to entertain DD while I shop and pay. There really is no need for her to do this, but I get my shopping done amazingly fast and DD doesn't whinge at all.

And again not random but another mum at school has 2 ponies and despite this is not well off at all. She lets me ride one and mistakenly let it slip the other day that she has paid extra insurance for me to do so. And she bought me a Christmas tree this year, I cried in the school car park. It was so sweet of her!

Dh & I were going to a wedding in my home town and were already running a bit late. We got off the bus near my parents', where we were staying, and just as the bus moved off realised we'd left all our wedding clothes on the bus

Dh ran after it but it didn't stop. A group of girls standing at the bus stop asked what was wrong, and then one of them ran across the road to her mum's house, and her mum got us in her car to chase after the bus. Turned out that it stopped at a terminus about a mile up the road so we caught up with it, got our bags and then she gave us a lift to my parents. Lovely, lovely lady (and daughter)

We stopped by the next day with flowers (and massive hangovers)

Devon that's so lovely. There's a homeless man I walk past every day and everyone else ignores him - he never asks for anything, just sits there and says hello if you deign to look at him (noone else does ) - I always have a chat with him. I was working in a cafe a while ago and every time the door opened a freezing gust of air blew in. I bought him a cup of tea with a few sugars in and took it round the corner to him - he was counting out his coins to see if he could afford one and hadn't had quite enough.

In Liverpool there used to be a homeless man who had a sign saying "I don't want money, just for you to smile at a stranger and brighten their day". I often think of him - it's amazing what lovely reactions you get.

One event that had two random acts of kindness- when ds1 was about 7 I took him to London for the day. It was a big treat- he'd been saving his pocket money for weeks to buy a toy at Hamley's and he was so looking forward to it. I was already proud of him because back then I was a lone parent and he didn't get many treats or much pocket money and he'd done really well to save up.

We passed a homeless man at the top of the steps to the tube - I hadn't any spare change to give him and as we went down the steps I felt bad for that. When we got to the bottom ds1 stopped, turned round and ran back up. He gave the man all his pocket money. Obviously I was bursting with pride and a bit snivelly to boot. Then a lovely American woman came over, told me how she'd watched the whole thing and said 'What a wonderful boy your son is. You're doing a great job'. I'm afraid that that completely finished me off That woman's kind comments meant so much to me- as, of course, did ds1's kindness.

We had a regular big issue seller who used to stand opposite where I used to work. I'd occasionally get a copy to read on the train home.

One day I was self-absorbed, feeling completely fed up with life, when he said "Theres an new issue today" I snapped "I'm skint, No money on me", he smiled and said "take one anyway, you look like you could do with cheering up" I burst into tears!

A couple of months later, I was struggling on crutches, trying to juggle my work bag etc, it was only a 10 minute walk to the station, but then another 5 to the platform and I'd badly mis-judged how I'd cope. He insisted on carrying my bag for me, right to the train, and wouldn't accept the fiver I tried to give him...

Whilst skint I used to park my car on the road, and then get the train to work. I came back to find all my tyres down. An old lady across the road came out and on finding I didn't have breakdown cover, insisted that her son could sort it out . She took me in gave me a cup of tea and made me ring home. She said she suspected one of the neighbours was fed up, so suggested that I used her driveway as it was empty everyday! Her son drove over with an electric pump that he kept in his lorry! When the petrol strikes where on, she came out with a list of petrol stations that had got deliveries to make sure I was okay.

There are so many good people in the world, who have raised my spirits and touched my heart.

Gosh I've realised how blessed I've been!

One of the most recent was in September, we had a call to say FIL in Holland had hours to live, DH went straight from work, and I caught a flight with 9mo dd just a few hours later on my own. So many strangers helped, when they could see I was struggling. I had a car seat pram, large suitcase( I'd had to throw stuff in for all three of us)and a silly amount of hand luggage. Once on the plane DD had missed her nap and was grumpy, being a little witch, I was worried about the other passengers, when this chap started to smile and play peek-a-boo. There was a huge group of them together, all amusing her. I was so grateful, and even managed to get a much needed coffee. It turns we were adopted by a Male Voice Choir, who had been playing the Philamonic Hall the night before. DH was a bit bemused to see us walk out with 30 strange blokes carrying all our luggage!

When I had just had ds1 I was feeling hormonal and teary and didn't want to be on my own so went to work with dh one day. He had to go to recording studio job and ds was crying is I had to wait in the car. Fast forward 4 hrs and dh is delayed on job and I am in car with nothing to do except (fail to) get ds to latch on for bf etc. very tearful and feeling hopeless in a town I didn't know and on an industrial estate not nr shops or anything . Rough looking man comes out of unit opposite and approaches the car... I had all the wrong judgy thoughts in my head and turned away locking the car doors. He came back a few mins later with a tray beautifully laid with a cloth, a china cup of tea and a plat of toast with strawberry jam all cut up neatly. He knocked on the window and I burst into tears with gratitude. Felt so bad I had misjudged him and and never did really thank him as I was crying too much. Best cuppa I've ever had.

Too many to name, I guess I've been really lucky. One that sticks in my mind recently is I had dd, then about 8 months old, in a sling and was in tescos pushing the trolley round. A picked up a bottle of cream cleaner and the lid must've been loose because it exploded in my face and got into my eyes. The pain was awful, and I was blind because I couldn't open my eyes but I couldn't get it off and I terrified it had gone over the baby. A man who I never saw and never got to thank stayed with me for the 10 minutes or so it took for tescos to find a first aider talking to me calmly and reassuring me that the baby was fine and none had got on her.

On another note though my dogs sometimes do random acts of kindness to strangers. My labrador cross used to somehow know when people were sad and once she saw an old man sat on his own in the park and went haring off over to him - she usually didn't go running off - and when she got to him just put her head in his lap. I rushed over to apologise for her disturbing him and to call her off, but he was just stroking her ears with tears on his face. Turned out he'd had to move into a home from his own house and had had to give up his own dog to do so, and had come to the park because it was a place with happy memories for him. After that we saw him at the park quite a bit and she'd always make a bee line for him.

Great thread this! Really makes you think and smile (two of my favourite things :) )

oh dear lionsntigers... your dog story has done for me.

When I lived in Berlin, it was very much common practise to pass your day travel ticket on to people if you weren't going to use it again.

People even used to leave them on the ticket machines if no-one wanted it. It was always lovely to save a few euros, probably happened to me at least once a month.

MiLady, your story has made me weep. You must be so very proud of having such a lovely lovely DS. What a fab job you must be doing to have such a little winner!

And I am also a bit at Lions' dog. Too cute for words (and this from someone who is not a doggy person).

I still remember when I was working in in Mc Donalds in Darwin (Australia) - I served this young Aboriginal boy a 50 cent ice cream cone and he went to meet his parents outside.
As soon as he got outside he accidentally dropped it, I'm guessing his parents didn't have the money to pay for another one as they started to walk off, the look of bitter dissapointment on this poor boys face was heartbreaking!
The next guy in line (young-ish) asked me to quickly make him another one and he ran outside to give it to the boy. He then came back and paid for it and his meal.
I always remember that, I thought it was so sweet that he would do that for someone he didn't know, and even though there was a big queue not a single person complained about the delay :)

Actually there was another bloke who used to come in at about 6am every day and buy a full breakfast for about 6 homeless Aboriginal people, then sit there with just a coffee for himself and chat to them while they ate.

I always wondered if he knew them but I suspect he didn't because it wasn't always the same people that he bought breakfast for - I like to think he was just very generous :)

I once found a tiffany pearl bracelet on the floor in Sainsburys - I handed it in even though it was worth about £400 and everyone I knew (including DH) said I should have kept it and sold it but I wouldn't have felt right doing that!

feralgirl- thank you. I am very proud of him- especially so because he hadn't always been the 'easiest' of boys. As for whether or not I had anything to do with it- well I don't know about that, but your comment and that American lady's comment certainly mean a lot to me.