I don’t know any parents who would disagree with the fact that raising children can be difficult. Between the shouting, tantrums, fighting and sobbing, it is a part of parenting that all of us experience. That isn’t even to mention the way that our kids act sometimes (just kidding)!
Sammie Welsh is a single mother from England who found out that it is better to keep her young boy busy rather than to experience the drama that many other kids seem to make part of their daily lives.
She sat on the train with her three-year-old son beside her and a stranger behind her. As the train was moving along, she did her best to keep the youngster busy. She didn’t want him to throw a tantrum with a train full of people around her. She was just trying to get home.
Sammie did her best to keep him busy by playing video games, asking about his day or teaching him some good manners. In fact, it was a great opportunity to train him on the way to act properly in public.
Rylan ended up becoming connected with the stranger sitting behind them. As his comfort level grew, he was showing more and more just how good of a young boy he was.
When they were just a few stops away from home, the stranger sitting by her got up and left. Rather than just going quietly, he handed her a note that was wrapped around some ₤ 5 bills.
She read the note quietly to herself. It said: “Have a beverage on me, you’re a credit to your generation, courteous and teaching the little young boy excellent manners.”
There was also something written on the back of the note and it was much kinder than even the kind words he wrote on the front. He said:
“P.S. I have a child your age, somebody did the exact same for her as soon as. Hope when she has kids she is as excellent a mom as you.”
It was perhaps the biggest compliment that anybody could have provided for that young mother. She really did all that she could when raising her son and the acknowledgment touched her heart.
Sammie started crying on the train because of the stranger’s kindness. The note did more than touch her heart, it motivated her to say thank you in the only way she could.
She went on Facebook and published a description along with pictures of the note. She then connected with local television stations and papers to try to discover the identity of the stranger. As it turns out, it was a 50-year-old task supervisor, Ken Saunders. He is just what he said, a father to a young girl that is her age.
It’s nice that he looked in the paper that day to see the story and to recognize that someone was trying to get in touch with him. He didn’t realize that his little gesture would do anything substantial but there it was, right in front of him.
“I simply could not think it. There was this huge story. It was rather surreal and I texted my child Romani to caution her I’d done something humiliating yet once again.”
They were finally reunited and Sammie told Ken how much his kind words and the financial gesture meant to her.
“I stress I’m refraining from doing an excellent task with Ryan all the time – all the time. I fret, am I too hard on him? Am I too soft on him? I attempt so tough to get it right. So for somebody to state I’m going a great task implies whatever.”
Ken showed her that even small actions can have a big impact on others. Now, Sammie feels good about her parenting skills and how she deals with her son. It was all thanks to a kindness showed from a stranger on a train.
Good manners are still an important part of parenting. Things may get difficult sometimes but we can always look back on this example of what one stranger did for another.