Last weekend, my husband was out of town, my son scheduled for a sleepover playdate leaving my daughter and I with a free girls night. We decided to rent a couple of movies, and have a night at home together.
We stopped at the Blockbuster’s in our neighborhood and found a couple of movies we liked. When we checked out, the clerk told us that we had $15 of outstanding movie charges. Yikes! I remembered that it was probably from a few weeks earlier when my son had chicken pox and we’d spent nearly the whole week at home watching movies and I’d lost track of their due date and neglected to return them on time. The clerk suggested I speak to the general manager who was visiting their store that night. I told him my “sob story” and he immediately said, “No problem. We’ll give you a one time pass on those fees.” He also asked that I consider donating $3 to their Operation Iraq. The money is going to shipping movies, popcorn and candy overseas for the American soldiers. “Of course, I will do that,” I said.
When we got in the car, my daughter made two important comments. “You have to blog about this and I think you should donate the other $12 somewhere else.” It isn’t every day that you get opportunities like this to discuss with your children. She knew I hadn’t lied about my son having chicken pox and forgetting to return the movies, but she did feel like we had received a gift from the manager and we needed to pay it forward. Since I haven’t given that other $12 away yet, I have decided that I want my daughter to help decide where we should donate it so she can help me complete this pay it forward cycle.
Always grateful for teaching moments.
1,000 Mitzvahs 
What a lovely tribute! You are both in my heart forever, and I am so proud of your accomplishments. Cordially, Ellen