Lunch Letters: The Little Things We Can Do to Brighten Our Child's Day

Write your kids some notes and stick them in their lunch. You never know what impact you have in their lives with such a small thing that takes no time at all.
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I'm a sap, I admit it. I love my children with every cell in my body and I would move heaven and earth to help them.

While making lunches for my 7- and 8-year-old every day, I almost always include a small note. It isn't anything fancy, just a little piece of paper that tells each of my children how much they mean to me or something special for the day. I often will say something like "I'm proud of how well you slept through the night," when they have been having a lot of nightmares, or "You are did so amazing at Taekwondo!"

It's just a little bit to lift their spirits (or so I hope).

Well, I had been doing this for a while and one day a few months ago I did lunches as usual, packed my own lunch and then got ready for work upstairs. Performing the usual routine, I dropped off the kids at school and then took the train to work in Boston. Fast forward a few hours and I am sitting at my desk pulling out my lunch box, and what did I find? A note from each of my children. One said "Dear Dada, Have a wonderful day" and the other said "Daddy, I love you."

My 7- and 8-year-old had apparently slipped them into my lunch box while I was getting ready upstairs, unexpected by me and deliberate on their part.


I know, I know... my heart stuck in my throat too. That was when I knew that I was always doing a good thing writing those little daily notes.

Now, jump forward to today. I have continued to write the notes and I ask my oldest, "Do you still read those notes I leave you?" He looked at me and held up his little index finger as if to say "hold on a second" and disappeared around the corner.

A little frustrated with being dismissed, I said, "I asked you a question," to which he responded, "Hold on Daddy."

He came back around the corner and held up his blue fabric lunch box. The lunch box itself has two compartments; the zip up area that contains his lunch and a front pocket which we never open. He opened the Velcro on the pocket with a ripping sound and pulled out a stack of notes and looked up at me holding them. "I collect them all. When I get sad during the day, I go back to my lunch box and pull them out to make me happy."

I was touched that my notes meant that much to him, that I could still manage to touch my son a little in the middle of the day when I'm miles away.

So I say this to all you daddies and mommies: Write your kids some notes and stick them in their lunch. You never know what impact you have in their lives with such a small thing that takes no time at all. What do you do daily to make a difference in your children's lives?

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