Riley's Character Ed Award

After school today, Riley was so excited to tell me that he was awarded a Character Ed award for being Generous. His name was announced at today's school assembly, and even though I wasn't there, I can just picture his little surprised grin when his name was announced.

I just recently read a parenting article about the importance of modeling to your children the behaviors you want from them. I totally agree with this. I think if you want your children to have manners, you need to have manners yourself. It makes perfect sense.

I have known for some time that Riley is a generous boy. This past Christmas, he made sure to either buy gifts or make gifts for everyone who was included in our Christmas; all of our extended family. He was very thoughtful in doing this. Me??? I was frantically buying gifts on-line, since I didn't have the patience to shop in the malls. I complained a lot this past December about the shopping, the hassles that the holidays seem to bring. Since the Christmas shopping was falling on me this year (Tim just works too much), I was feeling the stress of getting all the perfect gifts for everyone. Meanwhile, my son was happily making gifts and wrapping them all himself. I certainly wasn't modeling any Generosity manners this past month. And last year, he organized a fundraiser for a friend's daughter who was battling cancer, and he managed to raise $900 in his German International School. He is always offering to help me clean, rake leaves and shoveling the driveway. Two years ago, Tim moved to Germany and we lived almost 6 months apart. Riley took his role as "man of the house" very seriously, and was a tremendous help during this time. I have to say, too, that my daughter is generous. While she's generous in a loud and boisterous way, Riley is generous in a quiet and soft-spoken way.

We did shop for others this season, adopting a family. So that was generous. I am a somewhat generous person, but I could be even more generous. My son naturally is generous, while I have to try to be...He is a role model for me; truly.