Day 1247 | Proud Parenting Moment

There's some back story here.  

Last week, Chase came home from school upset because one of his classmates, let's call him Joe, wouldn't do partner work with him. And he used some pretty forceful language to let Chase know he wasn't interested. Chase, and his sensitive soul, was hurt and confused because usually Joe loved doing this work with him and Chase really enjoyed working with Joe. 

Chase came home, told me about the bummer of a encounter and I suggested that perhaps Joe was having a bad day and, although it hurt your feelings, it was important to not take it personally. I told him that if/when someone says something hurtful to him again, to try to respond with something kind. 

Flash forward to yesterday. Chase once again asked Joe if he wanted to do this partner work with him. (Let me say I was already so impressed by just this sweet gesture.)  Much to my dismay, Joe declined and once again (although not quite as roughly as the first time around) said some unkind words to our sweet boy. Instead of getting upset, Chase said to Joe, "That's ok. But if you ever want to work with me, I would really like that." (or something similar).

Can you handle it? Talk about a proud parenting moment! To reenforce this amazing behavior, I offered Chase an unprecedented afternoon activity: he could choose a super special afternoon snack or a trip to the dollar store to pick out whatever he wanted. He chose the dollar store (hence the photo) and a pair of slinkies as his reward. Obviously what everyone would do. 

I'm crazy proud of this little guy.