I love random acts of kindness. The little things that people do for someone else to brighten their day and make things easier.
There was a recent story in the media of a woman in Canberra who received a parking ticket on her car while at a hospital with her sick child. A stranger saw the ticket on the car, paid for the fine, and then left the car owner a note.
(photo via Facebook)
“Hi there, I saw your car had a parking ticket on it, I’m sure whatever you are going through at hospital is tough enough, so I have paid for you. Hope things get better”
I’ll admit this story made me feel all warm and fuzzy. What a wonderful thing to do for someone!
There are so many small things we can do for someone to brighten their day or make things easier. Here are five things to get you started.
- Send a card or note to a friend. For no particular reason other than to say hi.
We often send cards for birthdays, when a baby is born and at Christmas. But what about sending a card to just say “hi” or “I’m thinking of you”. One of my girlfriends and I send each other cards regularly, to literally just say “hi you, hope life is good, miss you xx” It is such a lovely thing to check the letterbox and see a hand addressed envelope!
- Pass on your ticket to someone else when you leave the car park.
If I have 20 minutes or so left on my parking ticket, I’ll often wind down my window as I leave the car park and ask another driver if they would like the ticket. They may only be ducking in to the shop to grab milk and only need a few minutes. It doesn’t cost me anything extra to give them the ticket, so why not?
- Let someone else in front of you at the supermarket checkout.
If you’re queuing at the checkout with a trolley full of groceries, and the person behind you only has a few items, let them jump ahead of you. Someone let me queue jump the other day when I had my cranky toddler with me and I was just buying milk and bananas – I managed to get out of there with my sanity intact and get the toddler home in time for his nap. Yay!
- Compliment someone.
One of your friends is wearing a great jacket – tell them! Your sister has a new haircut that looks fantastic – tell her! Your colleague did an awesome job on a project – tell them! Just make it genuine, and not creepy 🙂
- Make a meal or bake something for a friend.
If you’re making a big batch of lasagne or curry, pop some in a container for a friend to keep in their freezer. That way when they’ve had a shocker of a day, have to work late or are sick, they have something delicious and quick to have for dinner. If you’re a keen baker, how about making some biscuits or a slice?
Sometimes these little things can make a big difference in someone’s day.
Has anyone ever let you queue jump at the supermarket?
Has someone paid for your parking ticket?
I’d love to hear of any random acts of kindness you have experienced!
Make sure you’re following Life, kids and a glass of red on Facebook for extra giggles and snippets of silliness!
Linking up with Essentially Jess for #IBOT.
Life, kids and a glass of red 
Yep, I often let people jump in front of me at the supermarket, I like the parking ticket idea too and I complimented a customer the other day on her perfume and I could see it made her day. Such a small thing but a big deal to the other person 🙂 #TeamIBOT
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Absolutely! It is the small things that can really make someone’s day 🙂
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Yes! We all need to just step back and be kind. That’s all someone needs really. x
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Loving your list of ways to brighten someone’s day Emma! I tend to do No. 4 a lot. I love to compliment people. I could try harder to more of the others! One kind gesture can really change the direction of someone’s day – for the better and it’s not so hard to do! 🙂 x
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Thank you Min! A genuine compliment can turn someone’s day around – one day I was feeling exhausted and feral from lack of sleep with kids, when someone complimented me on my boots. Totally made me smile!
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Awww, this is a bit special :). I let people jump in front of the queue at the shops too. Especially little old ladies. They are just a bit cute. Haven’t had to do the parking thing, as we don’t have to pay for parking where I live. Yay for me! Compliments are the big one I think. Everyone loves a compliment, and it can make your day so good when you receive on. Emma, you are a great blogger and I think you are very cool. There is your compliment :)!!
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Aw, thanks for the compliment! I had a massive trolley full of groceries the other week and let three people jump ahead of me as they only had a few items each, plus my toddler was behaving for once and not trying to pull everything back off the conveyer belt…. They looked so relieved and beamed huge smiles! Love the small ways you can improve someone’s day 🙂
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Someone took back my shopping cart when my son was having a meltdown
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That’s a lovely thing to do 🙂
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I got a free coffee while at my fave sandwich shop when I forgot to order it. I was going to just add it on but the cashier said it was on the house-totally made my day!
I love the cards idea, I’ve been trying to do that more because who doesn’t love Mail?! Great post!
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Free coffee is awesome! Definitely try the cards idea, it is so nice to not just get bills in the mail!
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I always pass my ticket on in the car park. It’s such a great feeling – as the recipient is usually extremely grateful! I did, however, go to a car park the other day and they made you enter your number plate (it printed it on the ticket) so you couldn’t pass it on!
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I’m always grateful when someone passes their ticket to me. It’s the unexpected gestures that make them special!
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I just love all of these ideas! Kindness makes the world go around. I often let people with a few items in front of me at the shop. It’s amazing how a small act can help change someones day x
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It does, doesn’t it? Something so simple that everyone can do!
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Love the Canberra story, and you’ve written a nice little list about being nice. Kindness goes a long way.
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Thanks 🙂 It certainly does.
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It is the simple small acts of kindness that make our world a better place. Love the warm fuzzy feeling this gave me.
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I love little random acts of kindness! Thank you for giving tips on what one can do and reminding me to do at least one small act of kindness today. It always make me feel so much better when I see the smile on someones face because of some little thing I did. The small things that does not cost you much in time or money might make someone’s day much better!
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I love these! What great ideas!
It’s unfortunate how I never think to do these things until it’s too late or am so consumed in my own world.
I was with a friend the other day and we were going through a drive through and the person in front of us left $2 with the cashier and told them to take it off our bill! How nice is that!
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All wonderful ideas. It doesn’t hurt to be nice and do something selfless to make someone else happy 🙂
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That’s a lovely story and a great idea 🙂 Little acts of kindness don’t cost anything and can make big difference to someone’s day.
I particularly like the idea of sending cards. I used to write to my friends when we all went to live all over Europe, but stopped with the advent of Skype. We’d have chatted a number of times before the letter arrived, so it was all old news. A card just to say Hi, would still be nice and not be overshadowed by modern communications.
My husband often passes on parking tickets. I was surprised first time I saw him do it, but now I think it’s a very logical thing to do.
#brilliantblogposts
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Great ideas! Small things really can make such a difference. 🙂 Found you via Thriving on Thursday!
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That is such a kind gesture, isn’t it? You have inspired me to send some cards to my friends for no other reason than to say hello and I’m thinking of you. It’s been ages since I’ve done something like that – the internet and social media have a lot to answer for…
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Being RAK’ ed is always a highlight of my day and returning them to others I do often. I gave a lady 50c at the railway ticket machine recently – she beamed.
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People always seem so surprised when someone gives them change for parking etc! That’s lovely that you keep passing it on.
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I love all these! It’s such little effort to do something nice for someone else, even something as simple as picking up an item that a stranger has dropped. But so many people don’t make the effort.
Tegan xx – Permanent Procrastination
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I recently saw a few kids from my son’s school take a bunch of flowers they had picked from their garden for their teacher. Thought that was lovely!
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I often let people go in front of me at the supermarket and we always give our car park tickets away. Sometimes, I like to send cards to friends or bake cakes for my colleagues for no other reason than to spread a little bit of happy!
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Baking cakes for colleagues sounds lovely! Nothing like a wonderful morning tea to keep you going throughout the day and feel valued 🙂
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I used to always do the car park ticket thing but most places these days make you enter your number plate and don’t give you a ticket. Spoil sports. I agree it’s simple to make someone’s day – whether it’s saying something nice, giving them a meal, or buying them a coffee.
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How lovely is that note. Just the perfect thing to do in that situation. It is so nice to send random surprises to people in the mail so I like to do that.
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