On Thursday afternoon an incident took place that pleasantly surprised me even if the circumstances were not necessarily perfect. In fact it was precisely because the circumstances were not perfect that the whole thing happened in the first place. Maybe it sounds like a riddle, so it is time to explain. I will start with a little graphic to make things abundantly clear.

I had just been to pick up Older_Rah from his preschool and we were coming along the path that ends with the blue arrow. He was on his little unpowered scooter and was probably about 10m ahead of me. He is safe and I can trust him. Being five, he knows he has to stop at any road endings so we can check that he is safe. Green areas are just green spaces and the red box next to the arrow is a kind of drop off point for old clothes and things like that which can be collected and reused, I am not sure if it is charitable or for a business, but would seem odd if it is the latter. The dark grey represents pavements and the light grey is the road itself which is actually fairly narrow. You can see that it is at a junction point and the smaller road going off to the left represents a road to a private parking area, complete with barrier (not shown), that is underneath an apartment block. The coloured oblongs on the right represent parked cars. It is an important fact that the pavement continues on the other side of the junction.

Now to where it gets interesting...

As you can see, on approach to the road, Older_Rah suddenly found his way blocked by a car (represented with the stronger yellow oblong). I, of course, was coming up from just a few metres behind. I immediately saw that, while Older_Rah was correctly waiting to go across that his route was blocked. The boot (trunk to Americans) was open and a lady was dumping some stuff in the clothing collection box.

And this is what impressed me. Older_Rah was already engaged in a conversation with her and he was both polite and assertive. I say conversation, it was one-sided because she was ignoring him. He asked her why she was parking like that and blocking the pavement and so he asked again and explained that she was blocking him off and once again he asked why.

By now I had caught up, and saw that she was ignoring his very legitimate point. I didn't want to hijack his conversation and besides it would change the dynamic to adult and adult. Interestingly enough, he had said to be literally two evenings previously that "sometimes children are right and grown ups are wrong!" My role was to support him and so I simply said, 'It's a good question. Answer him."

She then explained that she was dropping some stuff off, but it still doesn't wash. Firstly it was illegal to park as she had done. I have not shown it but there was a warning sign that said cars parking in that area were in danger of being towed. But secondly if she had parked just 2 metres further, as represented by the lighter yellow oblong there would have been no blockage, even if it was still illegal - then it becomes a calculated risk on her part to see if she can get away with being there.

But of course an extra two metres, coupled with a selfishness that she is blind to is sadly common place.

However, what really impressed me is Older_Rah, because he is by nature a very gentle and reserved child who could probably do with being a bit more assertive (unless he is fighting with his little brother) and be more willing to stand up for himself. And here he was conducting himself perfectly in a mature and grown-up way - more so than the woman while being polite at the same time. He absolutely nailed it.

My heart swelled with pride - that's my boy!

What a little man he is and what a man he is going to become <3

As always stay safe and well my friends.

NB The header image, of course, is representative and not actual.