I can't sleep because of something that happened over a conversation with my son. If you follow my story you know how after withdrawing two weeks worth of cash with plans to do Dave Ramsey's envelope system, the cash was gone when my wallet was lost/stolen. fast forward to today.
We are in chimney rock and there's a store that displays that part of their proceeds go to help pancreatic cancer. We go in like typical tourists, and Parker starts getting anxious. He starts looking concerned and asks me, " mom! We don't have much money, remember? Maybe we shouldn't be buying anything or giving anything. We don't have much to give!" I wasn't going to go on to explain the benefit of having a small savings to save us or adult problems. I simply said, "There will always be more money. But giving is a gift that's not always money. no one ever got poor by giving. Giving comes in many ways."
I thought all day long about if I taught him the right lesson. Maybe I should I have explained the importance of saving and budgets and being responsible with money. What if my lesson taught him to be negligent and thoughtless with money? Did I mess up?!?!" .
It literally bugged me all day. Mom worry is strong, yall. I worry all the time if I'm doing this shit right. But then, as we walked in our pjs in the lobby of our hotel, my son said, "momma, can I go talk to that lady?" I looked across the big open atrium of the lobby and caught what my son did. An elderly lady, sitting by herself, looking overwhelmed. I said, "of course, boo." I sat at a table close to them, quietly observing to make sure he wasn't going of be abducted or say something he shouldn't. But he sat, asked her how her day was. Chatted about our day. Asked her if she was okay. And carried on. I couldn't hear it all, but by the end, he was hugging her, and she was smiling.
I asked him, as I tucked him in, "what did you want to talk to that lady for?"
He said, " you told me giving isn't always money. I don't have any, anyway. So I wanted to think of a way to give. I thought I'd give her a smile. Did it work?"
"Yes, baby. That's the best kind of giving."
And I know I taught him the right lesson.
