A bucket of kindness

Yesterday when I was with my granddaughters, Annika (4.5) was not in a happy mood - nothing was right! I ended up sitting her down and telling her I’d had enough of her grumping and unless she changed her attitude and the way she was speaking to us, she could sit in the car. She replied “you aren’t filling my bucket up”, I refrained from telling her what she could do with her “bucket” reminding myself that I was the adult and needed to act like one.

At Kindergarten the children have been told that everyone has a “bucket” inside them that needs filling up all the time. It can be filled by being kind to someone else, doing something for someone else, sharing, speaking nicely ,and also by being kind to yourself and by others doing these things for you. Her Dad explained to her that her behaviour had been “emptying Gran’s bucket” , therefore she was going home to be kind to herself so it would refill. Annika was interested in this concept so I explained to her that I was going home to read a book, which was something I enjoyed doing and by doing this, I would once again have a “full bucket” to share with others and that as easy as it is to fill someone else’s bucket, your behaviour can also empty someone else’s bucket. Hopefully she understood this.

I believe this “bucket” lesson taught to Kindy children is one adults should take note of too. We are all able to help others keep their “buckets” full, even by offering a smile and a hello to people we pass in the street. I thought about my day and the how my bucket had been filled today - smiles, cuddles and giggles with my youngest granddaughter, a hug from my son, encouragement at the gym, a chat with a friend, a thank you for the dinner I cooked from my step-daughters boyfriend and talking to my husband who is up in Darwin working and then I thought about how I had filled other's buckets - a smile to a stranger in the library, congratulating one of my "gym family" on her great workout, cooking a lovely dinner for the boys tonight and not making them do the dishes as I should have, instead doing them myself. The more I thought about this concept, the more I realised it isn't a difficult one to do everyday.

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