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Original poster

Kindnesses from strangers - share some happy stories!

61 replies

Miaou · 17/09/2006 21:17

Here is mine. It happened about 6 years ago. I took dd1 (then 3) to a local gala. By the gate was a man selling helium balloons and dd1 asked if she could have one. I said I would buy her one when we left, on the way home. She waited very patiently for her balloon at the gala but was getting more and more excited about it (bless). Naively, I thought that they cost about £1 so imagine my shock when I was told they were £4.50 each!! I didn't have enough money for one - poor dd was so upset. She held it together until we had gone about 10 yards away but then burst into tears . While I was consoling her I felt a tap on my shoulder - and the balloon man silently handed me a balloon. Dd1's face (and mine) were just a picture! She was so thrilled with the balloon and it lasted about three weeks too

Six years on every time I think of that it brings a smile to my face

OP posts:
MrsSpoon · 17/09/2006 23:03

We are in Scotland too and old dears were forever putting 'pennies' in the pram and pressing them into their little hands when they were just walking.

sorrell · 17/09/2006 23:04

So many. The shy Iraqi couple who gave ds pastries in the park, the assistant in the incredibly posh Parisian patisserie who gave him a chocolate ('Oh merci! merci! merci!). People who have carried prams, moved their cars for me, old lady who rushed over and gave me £1 for dd for absolutely no reason, bloke who once paid for my lunch in a cafe for no real reason, just so many random acts of kindness.

Original poster
Miaou · 18/09/2006 07:08

bump for the morning people - spread a little happiness

OP posts:
KBear · 18/09/2006 07:20

DS fell over recently when he was out with DH. A lovely lady came over and gave him and pound to make him feel better.

DS was being lovely as we were shopping last week. As we left the shop I said "I don't half love you" and ruffled his hair. A lady was passing, she stopped, put her bags down, came over to me and said "you have made my day hearing you talk to your little boy like that - what a lovely mum you must be". We ended up having a chat about the loveliness of little boys and she told me all about her grandchildren. It was a nice moment.

I firmly believe MOST people are nice, there are only a few rotters we come across that ruin our day from time to time.

CapedCrusader · 18/09/2006 07:49

I had to pull over into a layby when DS felt car sick. We got out and he was sick in the grass. In front of us was a truck and the huge hairy knuckled driver came out and gave ds a bottle of water (unopened I might add). He talked to him for ages about his truck, until ds1 felt well enough to get back into out car.

I felt really bad about being so suspicious .

Twiglett · 18/09/2006 08:01

danceswithmonkeys ... um where was your parking incident .. 'cos I've done that before

livelife · 18/09/2006 08:01

yep people are generally lovely and kind. i think shyness stops some people not horridness! I don't have much money but took my mum who was visiting for lunch in town. there was a man from church in there and i stopped to say hi and introduced my mum very briefly. he left quite soon after. when i went to pay the bill i was told it had already been paid by an anonymous gentleman! i was choked by his generosity.

batters · 18/09/2006 08:59

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

BettySpaghetti · 18/09/2006 09:13

DP had a great example of karma happen the other day. He dropped me and DD off to go to a party and as he was about to drive off a man asked him if he was going back towards a certain area of town which DP was so he said "hop in" and gave him a lift. This gent was very appreciative of the lift and said that not many people would have offered, partly due to life in this day and age and partly as he was a Muslim because people have become suspicious etc.

Anyway after dropping him off DP went off to one of the local Asian shops to buy fresh chilis, grabbed a handful and took them to the counter to be weighed and the young guy said "Oh just have them, they don't weigh anything, no problem".

TheDullWitch · 18/09/2006 09:15

I was driving along in London on a dark winter night, 8 months pregnant with my 20 month old in the back when, in a bovine pre-labour daze, I bashed the kerb. The impact buggered up the steering. And I was in a dodgy bit of town 2 miles from home.

I got out of the car, stood beside the car. A black cab stopped and the driver got out. He took my keys, managed to drive my useless car into a parking space then took me home. He carried my son into the house and was hugely comforting, because I was quite shaken up. When I tried to pay him he just said, "I have a daughter and a grandson and I'd just hope someone would do the same for them." What a lovely man!

I really think most people like to help, to do a little bit of good even in the big bad city.

melrose · 18/09/2006 09:22

When I was 20 my Uncle died, I had been with the family in LOndon to attend his funeral but had to get the train back to Uni as it was the middle of exam time. At the station I went to a call box to call my housemate to say I was on my way home, I must have put my purse on the top of the phone whilst I dialled the numbers and someone nicked it. This was before i bought my ticket.

As pre mobiles I has no way of contacting my family who were driving home, noone in London to go to and no ticket home. Went to the info desk where a lovely man gave me a cup of tea and a free ticket home, then called the british Transport police who took all my details and helped me phone the banks to cancel my cards. The policeman then came to see me again whilst I was waiting for the traina nd asked how I would get home from the station as I had no cash, then insisited on ngiving me £10 of his moneuy to get a cab as he did not want me walking on my own at night

Whole incident restored my faith in human nature!

sorrell · 18/09/2006 09:42

Oh yes, flat tyre once. Totally stranded in the street. Man stopped and changed the tyre for me, which was a sweaty, messy business. then thanked me for letting him do it (!) and chatting with him as he was Nigerian and he had come to expect white people to be extremely suspicious of him and to shy away from him. Thought that was incredibly sad and wrong.

Marina · 18/09/2006 09:51

What a lovely thread and am having a little Monday morning sniffle at HumphreysCushion's tale of her little ds
I think a lot of these small kindnesses go on when you are out in public with children - in London, where we live, but also abroad.
I was toting an exhausted but still game dd home from blanket-making at NQC's a couple of weekends ago and we nipped into a teeming grocery/Halal store for an ice-lolly to revive her at Shadwell. The other customers propped her up and chatted to her while I bought the lolly - none of it in English, but that made no difference
And on a trip to France last year ds and dd came home with free fridge magnets, bouncy balls and all sorts thanks to numerous kindly stall-holders

Sherbert37 · 18/09/2006 09:53

Went shopping on Sat with DD and she dropped her cashpoint card in the shopping centre. Went to the information point no more than 10 mins later and it had been handed in. Someone had bothered to go out of their way to take it there, and it must have been the first person to spot it. Also, it does mean so much when people comment positively on your children's behaviour. Someone told us that ours were lovely on holiday last year and it made our day.

Sherbert37 · 18/09/2006 09:56

Have you read the book about doing Random Acts of Kindness by Danny Wallace?

villa · 18/09/2006 09:59

Being helped up the stairs with a muddy pushchair - really grateful.

Legacy · 18/09/2006 09:59

Perhaps we MN-ers should have a Random Acts of Kindness thread and report back every day on what we have done, and how it was received...?

It may even change the world

Sherbert37 · 18/09/2006 10:03

Yes, do start another thread and get the children involved too.

Beccarolloveragain · 18/09/2006 10:05

yes, random acts of kindness thread should be started.

These stories are all lovely.

I paid for someones shopping yesterday, not all of it, hardly anything in fact just the £2 she was short but it made me feel good. She was very grateful.

hockeymum · 18/09/2006 10:27

That's a great idea legacy - will try and do something today.

Oh and the random act of kindness I can think of most readily that happened to me are the kind MNetters that give me stuff FFP and then ask for the postage money to go to charity. I'm happy and the charities are undoubtedly happy so they've done a very good deed!

loomer · 18/09/2006 10:41

How curious that I should find this thread, a mere ten minutes after getting a knock at the front door - some random bloke walking down the road wanted to point out that there was a bunch of keys hanging in the lock (poor DH has been working very long hours this week)... I felt very guilty at my immediate suspicion of him ("Oh, what does he want, selling gas/windows/teatowels" ).

Everyone should stick their parking tickets back on the machine if there's more than 15 minutes left on 'em... it's so easy to do, and I've been blessed several times at finding one just when I've run out of coins and have an urgent appointment.

I am always astonished at the kindness of strangers - and this has increased tenfold since having my first child (the kindness I mean, not my astonishment).

Clarinet60 · 18/09/2006 12:38

I was in a supermarket and DS2 had fallen heavily asleep, so I had to carry him and try to push the trolley at the same time. A lovely kind man took him from me and carried him all the way round the store on his shoulder while I did the full shop. I didn't know him, but own children were grown up - I've never forgotten it.

danceswithmonkeys · 18/09/2006 13:00

Twiglett - in Sevenoaks but unless you've morphed in to a pension aged lady I don't think it was you

I LOVE THIS THREAD...so many mumsnet threads make me cry, this one has made me smile!

Also wanted to mention several people helping me up stairs with buggy (last time it was a young lad dressed head to toe in black with a fringe covering his whole face virtually!) and a lovely pair of old ladies saying how beautifully dd had eaten her dinner and sat quietly at the table playing (aged 18months) dh and I were so pleased and smug!!

Twiglett · 18/09/2006 13:13

well on a bad day .. nope I was in Bromley last time I did it

lots of people do lovely things every day in my opinion .. down to just complimenting someone on what they're wearing

VeniVidiVickiQV · 18/09/2006 13:18

This is a lovely thread

I've had lots of help from folks with carrying pushchairs up a flight of stairs etc.

Also, when my car broke down in the centre lane of a very busy dual carriageway in London, an ambulance, and a police car happened to be just behind me. Both stopped, helped me out the car (I was 7 months pg with SPD), and then, after pushing my car over to the side of the road, decided to get a tow rope out of their car, and tow my car. The policeman "steered" my car for me whilst being towed, as i sat in the passenger seat. AND the AA, who id called for assistance also informed the police, after me telling them I was pg, and whilst being towed I got a phone call on my mobile phone from someone at Scotland Yard, asking if I was okay