Why I shop at Macey's

Today Duncan went to the store with me. While we were over in the dairy section, he found a box cutter lying in one of those open chest refrigerator things (yes, I am very articulate, thank you). He picked it up and asked me if he could take it to the front of the store and hand it in. An employee just happened to be stocking stuff down the aisle in front of us, so I told Duncan to go give it to him. Duncan went over and gave it to the guy, I put some yogurt in my cart, and we moved on. A few minutes later, when we were at the other end of the meat section, the employee came up to us with a handful of Smarties and asked me if it was okay if he gave them to Duncan (of course I said yes). He praised Duncan for bringing the box cutter to him and said it could have been really dangerous if a younger kid had found it instead.

Now, this wasn't some earth-shattering thing. Duncan didn't stop a bomb from going off, or hand in a wallet with a million dollars in it, and a handful of Smarties isn't going to pay his way through college (though if they lived up to their name, I would totally force-feed them to my kids every day). However, I really, really appreciate that Duncan did get recognition for doing the right thing, especially when it came from a source other than his mom. Parents are the bottom line when it comes to raising kids, but that doesn't mean the village shouldn't pitch in too. Quite frankly, when Duncan found the box cutter and wanted to hand it in, I didn't think much of it. I certainly thought he should, don't get me wrong, but after that employee came over and talked to him, there was definitely a glow about my boy. He was still glowing when he had me tell his dad about it later. I think there's a good chance he'll remember this for a long time. Definitely longer than me saying, "Go give it to that guy."

This isn't the only time something like this has happened at Macey's either. Several years ago there was a woman in the check out line in front of us who didn't speak English. She was having a hard time getting the cashier to understand what she needed, so Matthew stepped up and translated for her. Again, we didn't think much of it, but as we were leaving the store, one of the managers came up to us and gave us a thing of ice cream. It wasn't anything super fancy, but it was nice. Without getting too over the top serious, I think the world could use a little more recognition for the good things people do, not because people do the good things to get the recognition, but...why not? Who knows when a handful of Smarties is going to put somebody on the path of doing good deeds all the time? We could have an epidemic, all fueled by Smarties.

One last thing, in case you missed it earlier. I am so proud of my Duncan. Actually, maybe this is another one of those possitive side effects of a handful of Smarties. I said before that I didn't think too much about Duncan handing in the box cutter. I knew it was sharp, I knew it could be dangerous, and I was happy Duncan found it and wanted to hand it in (I can only too easily imagine finding out about it when I emptied out his pockets later). But when that employee came up with the handful of Smarties, Duncan wasn't the only one glowing. That's my boy, and he is wonderful, and sometimes it takes a complete stranger to point it out to me and remind me again that I am a lucky, lucky mom.