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?
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Random Act of Kindness - to balance all the ranty threads, tell me of a random act of kindness that you have never forgotten.
MmeLindor. · 25/01/2012 16:33
Aw blimey this country is FULL of amazing people! What a lovely thread 
Not a stranger but my neighbour, but worth recording:
I was working away and dh had an important meeting and his car refused to start. My neighbour drove him to work, dropped the children off at nursery for us and THEN came home and called the garage out to come and look at our car! She is lovely. 
My brother used to drive the school bus. As you do he got to know the kids with one of them being a little boy with Down's Syndrome. One day he got to the bus stop but the little boy's mum wasn't there. DB was not happy to let him get off so kept him on the bus dropped off the last few children and drove the bus to his house. His mum was there and I can't remember the reason why she hadn't been able to get to the bus stop but there had been some misunderstanding with a friend/DH.
She was so grateful and asked DB how he had pacified the little boy when he didn't get off at the right stop as she knew he would have been very unhappy about it. DB had given him the microphone used for coach trips and he'd sang karaoke until he got to his house. 
This thread has made me teary! I remembered the time I had DD 1 and DD2 at the small local train station and we had got on the wrong platform.... began to try to run up the steps with one dd in the buggy and the other pulling behind me...to cross the bridge to get to the right side and a lovely French man of about 30 or so jumped up
(he was on the right side) and began shouting "No! No! You stay still!" and I did and he came over and carried DD in her buggy all the way up the steps. Bless him. My older DD was looking at him like this He was very handsome!
I remember back when I was a student I was stuck in the group project from hell when the only thing that happened was meetings and any attempts to do practical work and get feedback were shot down. This period was when I happened to get together with DP ( now DH) when things were particuarly bad when one person was not speaking to me over a trivial mistake and the other had disappeared for 3 weeks. I went to one of their interminable meetings and the one who was speaking to me must have noticed how much happier I was with this change in circumstances. He said with a grin 'I've seen you swanning around with your new man' and that made me blush a little. I said to him 'that's so sweet that you've noticed and care just a little about me'. It was his turn to blush then!
That made my day and help put things into perspective that no matter how grim a project might be it is only transient and that the rest of life is much more important.
Me and my best friend used to go off camping when we were at sixth form. One weekend we'd gone to Edale and spent the day walking miles over the hills. When we got back, we'd missed the shop, had hardly any money and were out of supplies. We were lying in our tent that night, talking and probably complaining about being starving. When we woke up the next morning, the man who'd been camping next to us had packed and left and shoved a load of bread rolls under our door.
(And then that night in the pub we had enough money for a packet of crisps - it was when they were running a competition and we won a fiver which was enough to buy our tea!)
The other day I was running late for my train and had to sprint across the car park, over the footbridge and down icy steps whilst dodging dozy sixth formers. Was sure I was going to miss it but the lovely guard held the train for me and even shouted encouragement when he saw I was flagging.
My dad was one for random acts of kindness. He once drove a friends violin all the way to Cardiff from south London because she had forgotten it and had a gig. He took their next door neighbour shopping and to visit his wife (in a home) every week, happily waiting in the carpark for hours to take the neighbour home again. Another neighbour who had dementia was obsessed with driving but had his license revoked so he'd come and knock on the door, dad would get his car keys and they'd go off on a little pootle somewhere. Whatever dad was doing, even eating his dinner, he'd say "righto Mr G where to?" and off they'd go. He was lovely my dad.
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