Random acts of kindness...

Sauve

This is a very simple idea, and its only goal is to make one extra person smile every day.
Do one teeny small thing every day and tell us about it


I wasn't particularly nice to anybody today- I'll be back tomorrow with a smile story!

ElleEm

Sauve wrote: »

This is a very simple idea, and its only goal is to make one extra person smile every day.
Do one teeny small thing every day and tell us about it


I wasn't particularly nice to anybody today- I'll be back tomorrow with a smile story!

I try to do this a lot, it really makes me feel good. I will often give people my parking ticket, or give someone my trolley at the supermarket. Sometimes if I see a woman with a great style/ hairdo, I will compliment them. It takes nothing to do it, but may make someone's day!

ardle1

My random act off kindness, is popping into The Ladies Lounge to give you all a minute of my precious time,.. Your Welcome my dears........ ok now back to the Motors Forum:cool:

Lucyfur

ElleEm wrote: »

I try to do this a lot, it really makes me feel good. I will often give people my parking ticket, or give someone my trolley at the supermarket. Sometimes if I see a woman with a great style/ hairdo, I will compliment them. It takes nothing to do it, but may make someone's day!

I do these too There's a woman who I know from the school gates who joined the gym I go to a few weeks back. She's been working really hard and it's noticeable, so I whispered to her at the school gates that she is looking really well. She was delighted and gave me a big hug!

One or two have told me my hair is nice recently. It is exactly what I needed to hear, after having my almost waist length hair cut off, into what I can only describe as a Justin Bieber.

I brought tea to a friend who works in a different building to me. Done.

LadyBetty

I let a man jump the queue ahead of me in the supermarket yesterday, I had a half-full trolley, he only had a bunch of asparagus! He was really grateful, thanked me again when he was leaving & I felt great.

Pay it forward people!

TommieBoy

A person at the bus-stop was looking at my bag of groceries, so I asked if she would care to share a snack with me. So we had a little bus-stop picnic yesterday ...was fun.
I can't think of many random acts of kindness I perform - will have to do better.
Mostly I have been blessed with friends and strangers random acting me ...what a lovely gift it is.

m'lady

What a cool idea for a thread!! I'm now desperately thinking what random acts of kindness I've done today.... Eeeeek.. Watch this space, I'll come back in a few!

Digs

I was in town on Friday and when I went back to the car had two hours left on my ticket. Gave it to a lady who was heading over to the ticket machine!

I always try to do the supermarket one too if there's someone with only one or two things behind me. So many people are unaware of others around them!

loveBBhate

Plenty of ideas in here if anyone is stuck

http://touch.boards.ie/thread/2057076243/1

Sauve

Todays one was a bit of a failure but the intent was there

Driving home through town earlier, I saw a car broken down in a filter lane, hazards on, and the driver standing outside the car shivering.
'Here's my chance' I thought, as I pulled in, gonna save the day.

Except I blocked the way of the tow truck that was pulling in behind me, and ended up helping no-one and driving off again

Shared my umbrella with a girl in the rain at a bus stop who had a pretty useless looking raincoat
She was happy
Someone insisted on the same with me some months ago, passing it on I guess!

wallycharlo

Perhaps not what this thread had in mind but I spent 5 minutes trying to get 2 mice out of a large container of corn which they had gotten into, rather than just bury them with the contents of the fresh bad which was going in. Not sure if the mice will even thank me for my kindness though, considering that we have 4 cats ...

Goldenlady

not the best act, but I felt happy doing it! Was in a supermarket today and the woman in front of me forgot her shoppings bags and was going to pay for them... so I gave her 2 of mine!! Despite the fact I ended up carrying half my stuff in my hands, I felt better!! :-) Hate paying for bags!!

Not G.R

Got the homeless lad that sits outside the shop I work in Tea and a sandwich on my lunch. Always offers me half the sandwich too... Such a nice lad

Sauve

Todays one was only tiny, but I still got a smile out of the recipient.
I told someone his new haircut really suited him. He was chuffed

I don't know why, but I'm slower to compliment guys I know than girls...

JanaMay

Nice thread!

I usually do my best to be kind, as often as possible. And I find that people are mostly kind to me too. I think kindness is the most under-rated of all human qualities.

One poster (ElleEm I think), mentioned complimenting a stranger. It seems like such a small thing, but I remember one of my first nights out after having my first child. I was feeling like crap, a bit pudgey, with out-of-fashion clothes, desperately trying to fit in with all my single, fit and fashionable pals (and probably failing miserably!) when a woman I'd never met before told me in the loo that she'd noticed my hair earlier and thought it was lovely. Well I was chuffed! (I know I sound so shallow, I don't usually care about these things, I was probably just a bit vulnerable and possibly hormonal!) But I'd been feeling like a heifer, and the fact that she went out of her way to say a kind thing (it didn't even have to be true) was so nice.

People have helped me in many ways before, and I have them, but I just wanted to say that sometimes the tiniest thing can make a huge difference to someone.

Dolbert

I brought in croissants for everyone in the office, just 'cos it's Friday

Galwayguy35

Stray cat wandered into my place and I gave her some food and milk, the purring out of her was thanks enough for me, I'm a big softie as regards animals.

Hope she stays around.

NegativeCreep

Galwayguy35 wrote: »

Stray cat wandered into my place and I gave her some food and milk, the purring out of her was thanks enough for me, I'm a big softie as regards animals.

Hope she stays around.

Not to ruin this on you or anything but milk gives cats diarrhea! Stick to water :L

Malari

Galwayguy35 wrote: »

Stray cat wandered into my place and I gave her some food and milk, the purring out of her was thanks enough for me, I'm a big softie as regards animals.

Hope she stays around.

That's how my cat found us!

NegativeCreep wrote: »

Not to ruin this on you or anything but milk gives cats diarrhea! Stick to water :L

Not all cats, about half of them, including ours! Milk was all we had the first night but he's been regular as clockwork since we got him off that

I think I'll get a goggie xmas stocking for one of my neighbours pets. The woman who owns him is so lovely.

TommieBoy

My new friend checks on me once a week, for no reason (that I can think of) except to make sure I am okay...

clairefontaine

I seem to regularly be the sucker on public transport who gets to listen to someone's problems.

TommieBoy

Soooo.... no random acts of kindness on my part today, just friendliness with bus-riders and people ya meet - normal stuff...

....but I have been the recipient of THE most amasing online friends one could imagine.... their willingness to share their time, attentiveness, wisdom, and care+ is the loveliest random act of kindness I will ever know.

Lucyfur

I paid for someone's parking today. I think she thought I was nuts or hitting on her. Oh well!!

Sauve

Lucyfur wrote: »

I paid for someone's parking today. I think she thought I was nuts or hitting on her. Oh well!!

Ha!
Kinda OT but it reminded me of something that happened a few years back.
I was crossing the road and saw an elderly woman fall off the kerb. So as you do, I went over to pick her up. Her bag had gone flying, so I scooped that up and threw it on my arm as I tried to help her up.
She started screeching, I presumed she was badly hurt. But no. She thought I was stealing her bag.
She was all confused, she fell over, hurt herself, and now some random woman had her bag over her shoulder. The poor thing
Sometimes I really should leave well enough alone

Lucyfur

Sauve wrote: »

Ha!
Kinda OT but it reminded me of something that happened a few years back.
I was crossing the road and saw an elderly woman fall off the kerb. So as you do, I went over to pick her up. Her bag had gone flying, so I scooped that up and threw it on my arm as I tried to help her up.
She started screeching, I presumed she was badly hurt. But no. She thought I was stealing her bag.
She was all confused, she fell over, hurt herself, and now some random woman had her bag over her shoulder. The poor thing
Sometimes I really should leave well enough alone

:D

Years ago, I saw an elderly woman take a funny turn in town. Her husband called an ambulance and I sat with them waiting for it to arrive. They had done their shopping and he was fretting over it. I offered to bring their shopping home, thinking that I'd put it round the back of the house or something. No, no. He gave me their house keys and asked me to put it inside and drop the keys back to the hospital after

I'm sure there's a balance of trusting strangers out there somewhere :D

Deleted User

I posted this is the thread tommieboy linked to above. I wonder about myself at times

Deleted User wrote: »

I had one of those (not the same, but a backfirey one).

I was driving into work one morning, in Dublin City. Got stuck behind a car which at first I thought had broken down. When I looked again there was a woman pulling a young boy unconscious out of the car. I got out and tried ringing 999 but my phone wouldn't work, I tried a couple of times but nothing. Gobshyte here had Bluetooth on so it was ringing in the car :rolleyes:

Anyway, poor little fella wasn't responding. Mother didn't speak any English and was hysterical. Other people there had gotten hold of an ambulance and it was on the way. When it arrived the mother didn't know what to do with her car which was in the middle of the road, I told her I would take it to the hospital for her. I asked the ambulance guy where he was taking the child and he said crumlin. Off they went. Then I realised I now had two cars in the middle of heavy rush hour traffic :pac: one of the people who had been helping out had an office across the road and let me park my car there. So off i went in this teeny fcuking tiny cinquencento, nearly in the windscreen I was. Driving, no crawling, up the canal bawling my eyes out because I thought this child was gonna die. Took me an hour to get to crumlin and when I got there I had to join a big queue for the carpark.

I decided to drive up to the set down area in front of the hospital, and was trying to explain to the security guard that the owner of the car had come in in an ambulance. "no ambulance has come in here" says he. I told him he must be mistaken because the ambulance had left me an hour ago to come straight here. Nope. No ambulance had come in here today. So there I am, driving a car I don't own, having absolutely no idea who the owner is, or where she is! Security dude told me to park it up and go in and talk to the nurses.

Same again, no ambulance has come in here. Nurse was lovely and tried to find out where the ambulance had taken the child etc. Turned out, that fir religious reasons, the child ended up in temple street. I said I would take the car there and the nurse told me no, that there was nowhere to park. To leave the keys with her and the ambulance driver has let the woman know where the car is.

It was at that moment that I realised, not only had I helped noone, but I was stranded in crumlin with no car :pac:

Kid was ok in the end and the father picked up the car later on, apparently never even said thanks for the effort

tomthetank

told a chugger her makeup was gorgeous today. she seemed fairly taken aback and chuffed!

usually i speed past them without even looking because i don't want to get drawn into anything while i'm in a rush (and flat broke!!). but i don't think i'll do that anymore, it seems rude and obnoxious. it's important to acknowledge people and "See" them, no matter who they are or what they're trying to get from you.

Ilyana 2.0

Last weekend when I was at work, a little kid burned his hand off a teapot and was bawling his eyes out. It was only a tiny burn but obviously sore. After he got some burn gel and a plaster I gave him some little chocolates because he was still a bit teary. Cheered him up nicely

To be honest, I think that it's the really small things that make someone's day, like being kind to a frazzled waiter or paying someone a genuine compliment. I've had customers compliment my hair or my make up, and it's really nice to hear it when you're having a crap day

LottieP25

Hadn't enough money for the hospital car park the other night , trying to scrape together the remainder and this woman handed me 3 euro and insisted I used it

Was so lovely of her, really cheered me up.

Stheno

I was in aldi today on the hunt for thermal underclothes.

Myself and another lady were rooting through the ladies thermals, all of them not in our (same) size.

In another section I found more thermals and ended up at the checkout behind that same lady who asked me where I had found them, then fretted as she was next in line.

I gave her mine and shot down and got the last set while the OH stood in the queue.

She was delighted, and so was I, lovely to help someone out in a little way like that

She was in there to get them for when she is on the sidelines watching her kids at matches, I thought it was fab that we ended up having a great chat and she got what she was looking for

Lucyfur

I got a PM from a fab boardsie today that reads ''You are such a lovely person. That is all.''

Fecking delighted, so I am How nice was that?

TommieBoy

I set out a few weeks ago to do an ongoing RAK for the people who ride on the bus with me each morning. The bus driver is a total curmudgeon as well as a bad driver (feel like hurling arriving at my destination)... So, I figured if I was pleasant to him every morning, maybe he would respond in kind to everyone... So, I always boarded with a cheery smile and a "good morning, isnt it a lovely day!" sort of thing...

Never once in three weeks did he smile or mumble a reply... until today.
I boarded with a knee brace and a limp. When my destination was coming, he passed it without stopping. When I mentioned his failure to stop, he didn't apologise or even stop at the next stop (and there was no way my knee could walk the extra distance back)... He just said "don't worry I'll get you back there."

Sooooo... I rode to the end of his route as the bus emptied out... I sat there, alone in the bus with him, waiting for him to drive back... He said he was taking a 15 break and closed the doors. Then he became rather, ahem - 'friendly' - and :mad: not the good kind of 'friendly' - he said his shift was almost over and made suggestions of what we could do with the rest of "our day." I said I had alot of work to do, he insisted 'tomorrow then!" and thankfully he let others on board and we left.

Tomorrow I will find another bus route to take and am very leery of being cheery to strangers again

Sauve

God Tommieboy I have goosebumps reading that
Please make a complaint about him, stop him from pulling the same stunt on someone less able to stand up for themselves.

SusieBlue

I haven't completed this RAK yet but I'm hoping to have them completed by this evening to hand out. I saw them on Pintrest of all places, but I think its a good idea, so I'm going to make a few.

You basically fill a rucksack full of essential items and hand them out to the homeless. I bought a couple of cheap rucksacks in Penney's, and inside them I've put:

A fleecy blanket
Gloves
Hat
Scarf
Thermal socks
Bottled Water
Crackers
Home made sandwiches
Digestive biscuits
Baby wipes
Sanitary products
Chewing gum
Hand sanitizer

Cost me €10 to fill each bag by buying in bulk. I'm hoping to make 3 a week between now and Christmas, more if I have the money. I don't know if they'll help or be wanted but it won't hurt to try. I genuinely feel sick thinking of people sleeping in that cold

Neyite

WhiteRoses wrote: »

I haven't completed this RAK yet but I'm hoping to have them completed by this evening to hand out. I saw them on Pintrest of all places, but I think its a good idea, so I'm going to make a few.

You basically fill a rucksack full of essential items and hand them out to the homeless. I bought a couple of cheap rucksacks in Penney's, and inside them I've put:

A fleecy blanket
Gloves
Hat
Scarf
Thermal socks
Bottled Water
Crackers
Home made sandwiches
Digestive biscuits
Baby wipes
Sanitary products
Chewing gum
Hand sanitizer

Cost me €10 to fill each bag by buying in bulk. I'm hoping to make 3 a week between now and Christmas, more if I have the money. I don't know if they'll help or be wanted but it won't hurt to try. I genuinely feel sick thinking of people sleeping in that cold

OMG, you win the thread!! That is such a wonderful RAK. I want to do the same.

SusieBlue

Neyite wrote: »

OMG, you win the thread!! That is such a wonderful RAK. I want to do the same.

Thanks! I rang the Cork Simon Community to ask them if they thought people would find it useful before I started and they thought it was a fantastic idea. I'm tenitively considering starting a FB event to see if anyone else would be interested in making them, if even 10-20 more people made a bag it'd be a big help in this weather. Not sure if there's the interest though!

I'm a student and I only work part time, so by the time I pay rent/food shopping etc. I have no spare money at the end of the week. I walked to college and work this week instead of getting the bus so I'd have the money to make an extra bag. Really, its not a big sacrifice for one week. I'm currently trying to see where else I can cut corners to make another extra one. Handing my first one out in the morning, I hope they find them helpful.

Lucyfur

WhiteRoses wrote: »

Thanks! I rang the Cork Simon Community to ask them if they thought people would find it useful before I started and they thought it was a fantastic idea. I'm tenitively considering starting a FB event to see if anyone else would be interested in making them, if even 10-20 more people made a bag it'd be a big help in this weather. Not sure if there's the interest though!

I'm a student and I only work part time, so by the time I pay rent/food shopping etc. I have no spare money at the end of the week. I walked to college and work this week instead of getting the bus so I'd have the money to make an extra bag. Really, its not a big sacrifice for one week. I'm currently trying to see where else I can cut corners to make another extra one. Handing my first one out in the morning, I hope they find them helpful.

You are an extremely kind and lovely person Such a fab idea

TommieBoy

Neyite wrote: »

OMG, you win the thread!! That is such a wonderful RAK. I want to do the same.

I so agree! way to go WhiteRoses!

Sauve wrote: »

God Tommieboy I have goosebumps reading that
Please make a complaint about him, stop him from pulling the same stunt on someone less able to stand up for themselves.

Thanks Suave ...I reported him to the transit authority
...and didnt see him this morning

Ms2011

Was in Blackrock market on Sunday, OH & I found a purse on the floor in one of the little shops so we gave it to the man behind the counter of the shop.
While waiting on OH outside another shop I heard an elderly lady panicing that she'd lost her purse while rifling through her bag. I tapped her on the shoulder & directed her to the shop where we'd found her purse. While she raced off to get her purse her husband shook my hand calling me an angel:o. Felt good for the rest of the day

clairefontaine

WhiteRoses wrote: »

I haven't completed this RAK yet but I'm hoping to have them completed by this evening to hand out. I saw them on Pintrest of all places, but I think its a good idea, so I'm going to make a few.

You basically fill a rucksack full of essential items and hand them out to the homeless. I bought a couple of cheap rucksacks in Penney's, and inside them I've put:

A fleecy blanket
Gloves
Hat
Scarf
Thermal socks
Bottled Water
Crackers
Home made sandwiches
Digestive biscuits
Baby wipes
Sanitary products
Chewing gum
Hand sanitizer

Cost me €10 to fill each bag by buying in bulk. I'm hoping to make 3 a week between now and Christmas, more if I have the money. I don't know if they'll help or be wanted but it won't hurt to try. I genuinely feel sick thinking of people sleeping in that cold

You're a superhero WR.

If you can, I'd throw in some clean underwear.

Neyite

White Roses, if you set up the facebook page, could you pm it to me? if I cant put together bags, I'd certainly donate a few quid. I'm not flush, but it would help.

Millicent

Neyite wrote: »

White Roses, if you set up the facebook page, could you pm it to me? if I cant put together bags, I'd certainly donate a few quid. I'm not flush, but it would help.

Ditto.

amtc

It's a funny RAK but not intentional!

My dad was giving my mam a lift into work, and as I was going away on a business trip and didn't want to take my car, they offered to give me a lift. So they picked me up and we parked in town to have some early breakfast. My mam and myself walked on ahead, as my dad stopped for a paper. Anyway my mother saw this blind man who was struggling to cross the road, so she dropped my arm, linked the blind man who put his stick up in front of him to hold (so not visible from the back), and proceeded across the street linking him whilst chatting away. All my dad saw from 50 m back was my mam heading off into the distance with a strange man. I was so dying laughing that I couldn't explain!

Semele

WhiteRoses, can you pop the Facebook link up here or send it to me too please? I just heard about a couple doing a similar thing in a town near me but couldn't find any contact details to contribute (I'm in quite a rural area, otherwise would just get on with it myself).

My recent attempt backfired- I was queuing for coffee at the new kiosk in my hospital. New girl taking the orders was all over the place, getting orders wrong, dropping things, forgetting change, etc, and the queue was getting grouchy. I ordered and as soon as I'd paid realised she'd overcharged me quite a bit (proportionally speaking, it was only a coffee and muffin:D). If I'd been on my own I might have said but honestly thought she'd cry if anything else went wrong so decided it wasn't worth making someone else's day worse for the sake of a quid. Felt all very good about myself till a 'helpful' fellow customer loudly pointed it out and demanded reimbursement for me! I was in such a dilemma-the woman wasn't being mean and probably thought that was her good deed for the day but I was fecking mortified. I tried to explain it didn't matter, which only made it worse as she then redoubled her efforts to win me justice, all of which caused a huge scene and the poor girl I was trying to help probably spent the day cursing me for the angry mob I'd unleashed on her!

SusieBlue

I contacted the Simon community asking for their backing in the FB event, thinking it would raise more awareness if they supported it, but they didn't want to get involved. They said they had a separate, different campaign going for Christmas dinner and they didn't want to overwhelm people with asking for too much. They said organising it myself may be difficult because I'd have to get a charity license from the guards, or something of the sort, and that without it people might be weary of donating or joining in in case I'm pocketing the money. I'm not comfortable with the idea of people thinking I'm keeping it at all so now I don't know what to do. I can't say I'm entirely happy with the idea of taking money for people when I have no way really of proving it was spent in the way it was meant to.

I'd encourage anyone who who was interested to make up their own bags instead. I handed out 4 this week and they were so appreciated, I couldn't believe it.

Millicent

WhiteRoses wrote: »

I contacted the Simon community asking for their backing in the FB event, thinking it would raise more awareness if they supported it, but they didn't want to get involved. They said they had a separate, different campaign going for Christmas dinner and they didn't want to overwhelm people with asking for too much. They said organising it myself may be difficult because I'd have to get a charity license from the guards, or something of the sort, and that without it people might be weary of donating or joining in in case I'm pocketing the money. I'm not comfortable with the idea of people thinking I'm keeping it at all so now I don't know what to do. I can't say I'm entirely happy with the idea of taking money for people when I have no way really of proving it was spent in the way it was meant to.

I'd encourage anyone who who was interested to make up their own bags instead. I handed out 4 this week and they were so appreciated, I couldn't believe it.

That's fair enough, WhiteRoses, and I completely understand your reasoning for not taking any donations. Only for the fact that I'm living somewhere where there's no visible homeless population and won't be up to Dublin before Christmas, I'd have made some of my own. I think a donation to the Simon Community might be in order in the meantime.

Seriously, you're doing something utterly fantastic and I am in awe of your creativity and decency.

Candy_Girl

Donated some of the clothing I sell to a Charity today,it's not much but but I hope it puts a smile on a few little girls faces this Christmas.

I paid the toll for the person behind me yesterday evening, I'll do the same on my way home.

TommieBoy

TommieBoy wrote: »

... and I... am very leery of being cheery to strangers again

Some truly remarkable, unexpected RAKS have been offered me, a relative stranger... So, because of others' benevolent example, I take back what I said ^ in that previous post... I really must renew my RAK efforts, not just during this season, but always...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIODr_RWwEc