Teaching My Kids About Random Acts of Kindness

Parenting

By: Leslie Stroud
Feb 17, 2019
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Teaching My Kids About Random Acts of Kindness

Last updated: October 27, 2026. This update clarifies the care context around the roses in the kindness story while preserving the family’s personal account. Date information added October 28, 2026.

An adult and a child hold hands outdoors against a green background.

First published February 17, 2019. This post reflects Leslie’s birthday-season reflections and family kindness stories from that time.

Do you love February? I sure do. First of all because it is my birthday month!

A woman and a girl sit at a restaurant table beside a birthday cake.

A plated birthday dessert with “Happy Birthday” written in red on the plate.

Are you someone who loves or hates your birthday? I’ve always loved my birthday. When I started to meet other adults who disliked their birthday, I was quite confused. Who could hate such a fun day? It takes some maturing to realize not everyone has pleasant memories about the same things as you do.

Two adults and a child pose in front of a board covered with writing.

February is also the month of LOVE, which is such a good pick-me-up after the letdown of Christmas being over. I always embrace Valentine’s whole-heartedly to get over a little of my heartsickness at missing Christmas for another ten months.

A baby in a red and white outfit sits beside a heart-patterned cushion. — *Baby Grace, already stealing hearts in her Valentine’s outfit.*

On the day this post was published, February 17th, it was Random Acts of Kindness Day! Another new reason to LOVE February.

A handwritten note reads “You are loved” in English and Chinese. — *A note that says “YOU ARE LOVED” in English and Mandarin*

Watch our family video: Random Acts of Kindness Day in Hong Kong With Five Kids.

*Disclaimer: This post may contain affiliate links. Opinions shared are my own, and I only endorse products I support. By clicking on any of the links below, I may get a small commission if you purchase at absolutely no additional charge to you. I appreciate your support.*

Ways Our Family Has Shared Kindness

Do you like to perform random acts of kindness? It is one of our favorite things as a family. Some of our past favorites:

Treating Your Nurses: Giving away lunch and donuts to the nurses at the hospital when we have a baby. Since all five of my loves were born by c-section, we get to know nurses quite well after 4-5 days with them. We love to treat them.
Doorbell ditching gift cards: When we were young and much more tight on money, we loved to splurge on a $25 gift card to a restaurant and leave it as a surprise for a couple we knew needed some time out together. We are BIG fans of dating (see our Valentine’s Day video from that time!) and we love to support others in their dating. Even if they use it for takeout when the kids are in bed, at least it is a break from cooking.
Paying it forward in the Drive-Thru. Chick-fil-a happens to be one of our favorite dinner spots when the night is getting away from us or we need a break. (Sadly, it isn’t as gluten-free friendly as I’d like, so it isn’t as good for us anymore. We have not found a drive-thru that works well for our gluten-free needs.) We LOVE to get to the cashier with a number in mind. We will say, “We want to pay other people’s tabs up to $50”. We then keep running our card for all the cars behind us until we hit our limit. I know the cars are getting annoyed at how long we are taking until they find out dinner is free!
Brighten-Your-Day Gifts: I love to brighten the day of someone I know and love, or even someone I don’t. I usually pick up a bouquet or two of flowers when I grocery shop and just make myself give them away. One time, in Colorado during our time there, we bought 4 dozen roses and took them to a nursing home and gave them away. We chose roses because we were concerned that some residents with dementia might put the flowers in their mouths. It was such a fun experience. For a similar visit, arrange gifts with the care-home staff first; the flower choice in our story is not a safety recommendation. The Chicago Botanic Garden advises against eating florist flowers.

Finding Ways to Serve While Traveling

One of the challenges of full-time travel is I have a hard time finding little things like those mentioned above to do. We don’t get to know anyone REALLY well on our trip due to time constraints. We also don’t get to know any area well enough to find cute places, like a nursing home, to volunteer. I find my kids and myself need service in our lives to keep perspective. It’s WAY too easy to be caught up in the excitement of our life and forget what a blessing it is to be doing what we are doing.

For me, serving and brightening someone else’s day can help when things feel hard or discouraging.

Kindness Others Have Shown Our Family

Instead of us giving service, I’ve noticed some wonderful kindnesses that have been shown to us around the world so far. In honor of the fun day, here’s just a few:

Patience with our kids: Our poor driver in Bali dealing with my carsick kiddos: When we went to the villages in Bali for our service project, the road was SO windy. I prepared with motion sickness pills, but it wasn’t enough. Grant threw up ALL over his car. I was mortified. He was so kind, took it in stride and had it all cleaned up when we got back. He put coffee grounds into the nooks and crannies of his car where the vomit went, and it smelled so much better to me. That was his approach on that day, rather than a general cleaning recommendation.
Helping us when we are lost: Many times we’ve been those lost, sad tourists staring at the signs in the subway. We can’t quite figure out where to go or get oriented. Some cities are nicer than others, but we’ve had plenty of people stop to ask if they can help. It’s not too big of a deal for them, but can change our whole day! I’ve spent hours sometimes just trying to find the train station, let alone figuring out which train is correct.
Locals being willing to be our “contact”: It makes a world of difference to know just ONE person in a new place. Especially when you are staying for a month. You usually need something boring, like a dentist, hair appointment, random item to buy that you can’t find, etc. It is so nice to meet just one person that lives there that you can text in a bind. I’ve done this many times. “Where do I find a hair brush?”, “What is the name of a mall?” A local can make all the difference in your stay. A new friend is even better.
Kids Being a Friend: My kids get lonely (we all get lonely). Having a friend, even for a week or two, can brighten up a whole trip. When you are leaving your “life” behind for a vacation, you may want to hunker down and focus on the family unit. I totally get that! However, this is our life. We love making friends. It is hard to know we will leave them, but it just makes the time together more sweet.

How can you spread more love today and this month? How have you or your family been touched by an act of kindness?

Be sure to check out our video from that time with some fun acts we did around Hong Kong!

Watch our family video: Random Acts of Kindness Day in Hong Kong With Five Kids.