Politeness

I encountered a mother and her young son in my local grocery store recently. The mother, who looked a little frazzled, had sent her son in my direction (he may have been 4 or 5) to pick up an item for their shopping cart. As the little boy approached me he quietly said, “Excuse me sir.” I remembered how good it felt when friends and strangers would tell me my own daughter’s acts of politeness, so I approached the mother and told her of her son’s gesture toward me. Her face lightened up with a big smile and she thanked me for telling. She then hugged her son and thanked him for being so polite. Both the mother and I left that store happier than when we entered.