I am a believer in performing random acts of kindness - for people I know or complete strangers, it matters not. I get a wonderful feeling when I have helped someone who needs it without being asked.
So late Wednesday afternoon as the rain started to fall, I poured a glass of wine, reclined on the couch, assuming that Harry's soccer training would be cancelled. Call me a bad mother but not having to get in the car to drive one of my 3 children anywhere has become the highlight of my life. However it was not to be. My phone went 'bing' and there was a text from the team manager. Although it was raining, the boys would be having fitness training, on the concrete, underneath the clubhouse. Fuck fuck fuck ( I should add that when Harry came home later he was soaking wet, and muddy and shivering so I'm not sure how much of the fitness training was under cover)
Anyhoo - back to my random act of kindness.
After I resentfully dropped Harry off knowing I had to get up off my arse in an hour to pick him up, I noticed a young man, in school uniform, walking with hunched shoulders against the now bucketing rain. I wound down my window and asked him if he needed a lift home. His eyes lit up and accepted and was very profuse in his thanks. He got in the car, and I offered him my phone, and asked if he wanted to call anyone to let them know he was getting a lift home but he declined. It would have been a 20 minute walk home given the distance and we chatted - he was in year 12, hoping to get into engineering etc etc. He asked about my son and soccer. We got to his house and he once again thanked me for the lift home.
I had a warm and fuzzy feeling. Until The Lawyer got home. I told him about my random act of kindness. He was furious with me. He said he would be livid If either of our sons accepted a lift home with a complete stranger (no matter how cute). He could not believe I had put myself in danger offering a lift to a young man I didn't know.
He went on and on and on. I see his point but I was completely deflated. I want to find that young man and shake him and say 'what were you thinking?'. I want to shake my husband and say 'what an awful world we live in where I can't feel like I can offer a lift to a kid, albeit a grown up kid, a lift home in the rain'. What have we become?
So did I do the right thing? Was he overreacting? What would you have done?
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Personally I think you did a wonderful thing and I would do the same. I would hope that if it was one of my kids they would have accepted the ride. Maybe if they were offered a lift by a bunch of teenagers, gang members or perhaps even any man I would hope they would turn it down. But a lift being offered by a woman? Should be fine. I gave a young guy a lift one afternoon. I told him I would only give him a lift if he wasn't an axe murderer. We had a laugh about it and there was no problem.
ReplyDeleteYou did the right thing, but he should probably not have accepted the lift!
ReplyDeleteThen again - surely, in some circumstances - rain, young boy, driver is another boy's mum, etc - this should all be just fine.