Among the “life lessons” I struggle to impart on my children is that every now and then it’s OK to ask for help. Part of my struggle is that I don’t particularly ask for help very well. But that doesn’t make it impossible for me to try to show the girls the value of friends and family and it’s important to be there for your friends and family without expecting anything in return.
Saturday was a test case for this. One of my friends needed help consolidating belongings from his wife’s place in NJ into his place on Long Island. The physical aspect being a separate piece to the story, this would need a 90 minute or so ride out to Central Jersey. Where we would have to load up a truck and then do the 90 minute ride east to unload all the stuff.
Certainly I could have dragged the girls along for the day-but they would have been bored and would not be bashful to let me know. So, in the same way my friend asked me for help in moving, I had to ask friends for help in taking the girls for a very long day.
11.5 (and please read this as 11-point-5 at her request) spend the day with one of the train crew who has a daughter about the same age. 9.0 spend the day with her friend across the street. Both had a full day-and because I know my friends there well-being never crossed my mind.
So when I am asked to help a friend move, or take in some frozen food during a power outage when we have power and others don’t or having a sleepover on a school night because of a long day-I say yes. And the reason? That’s what friends do. I think the girls see this, we talk about it and I reference these moments.
Hopefully they learn this too-and adopt being there to help friends and family. It is rewarding.
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