One of the best parenting moments my husband and I have ever had was when our older daughter fell in our playroom. (Just wait: It's not that we were happy that she got hurt.)
Picture this: Two little girls almost 5 years apart playing in the basement playroom. The older daughter gets hurt and is crying. Before Mom and Dad have a chance to get to the scene, Little Sister Magic takes over. She doesn't run upstairs to get Mom and Dad. She doesn't become upset because her big sister — her idol — is sobbing. She does something bigger, a small gesture of enormous love and kindness. She offers her sister her most precious possession, her lovey. Her soft, on-her-nose-all-the-time, fight-about-washing-it, raggedy lovey. Talk about the ultimate Pouchie Pals moment!
It was amazing to see that our daughter “gets it.” We practice and preach the value of kindness in our family. But seeing our daughters express it to one another was a milestone parenting moment. One minute our daughter is sniffing her lovey with her button nose, and the next, she is channeling its soothing powers to comfort her favorite person in the world. Our younger daughter's act wasn't just one of empathy and soothing for her sister. It soothed me and my husband, too. We know our daughters have each others' backs. This moment reminded us of how important small acts of kindness are. Maybe small acts of kindness aren't so small at all.
Years later, we still talk about that moment, smiling about it as we drift off to sleep. It’s the lesson we hope our daughters always hold onto, and pass on to their own children someday. “I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did," said poet Maya Angelou, adding so eloquently, "But people will never forget how you made them feel.” Simply being kind makes a profound difference. Pouchie Pals was built on this concept. When you give & share a Pouchie Pal, the kindness and feeling of pure love goes right along with it.