Clean Water Family Kindness Challenge #PGMom

Little One was asked me what the definition of an oath was.  The simple answer for a six year old to understand is “an oath is like a promise”.

Me: You know in Sparks, you say a special oath?

Little One: Yes. It’s “I promise to share and be a friend”.

Me: That’s right. Does our family have an oath?

Little One: Yes. It’s “Be kind, be helpful, and be honest”.

I was really impressed that she remembered.  Those are some values our family holds close to our hearts.  For my husband and myself, supporting others ranks high on our list of priorities.  We may not have much, but we have much to give in the way of time and support.  It’s important for us to teach this to our Little One.

As mentioned, it’s important to us that we encourage our child to lend a hand in our local and global communities.  Lately, Little One has been learning about kindness.  Recently, I overheard another child tell another girl, “Are you friends with [insert Little One’s real name]?  She’s UGLY!”

That comment made my blood boil.  I could see Little One was hurt, but she didn’t say a word.  The tears just trickled down her cheeks, but she was silent.

I interjected and said, “That really wasn’t a kind thing to say.  We don’t say hurtful things to others.  You are all beautiful inside and out in your own unique ways.”  I’m not sure if that had any impact on the child, but I cannot stress enough the importance of kindness.

Kind gestures, both big and small, go a long way to creating a better world.  I explained to Little One that it’s important to show kindness to others not only in the way to treat them, but by also helping.  This can be helping those in need in our community or across the ocean.

Top tips for teaching little ones about helping people in need:

• Little One has been showing support to some charities close to our family’s heart.  She helps raise funds for cancer research, as well as for Mount Sinai Hospital (since she was born there and spent the first 72 days of life in Mount Sinai’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit).
• Little One and her Sparks Unit participate regularly in community initiatives.  When members of the community had misfortune hit, the girls (ranging from ages 6 to 7) baked the families cookies and made cards for them.
• Little One (though very petite) walked with me to my mother-in-law’s farm and we shoveled her steps and cleared her vehicle.
• When friends of ours had their entire household sick with whatever brutal bug that was going around, Little One helped me make a big pot of chicken soup and a few freezer meals for the family.

Family Kindness Locally & Globally

It’s been about a year since I have been made aware of the P&G and Walmart Clean Water Initiative. The initiative lead by P&G Children’s Safe Drinking Water (CSDW), is a program that helps provide clean drinking water to people in need through a water purifying technology developed by P&G. One small P&G purification packet quickly turns 10 litres of dirty, potentially deadly, water into clean, drinkable water.

Since April 2014, Canadians like you have come out in droves to support the initiative, raising more than 20 million days of clean drinking water for families around the world and propelling the initiative to within 20 per cent of its year-long donation goal. Today, we are closer than ever to giving 25 million days of clean drinking water to people who desperately need it, and the P&Gmom blogger community had been an integral part of this success.  As we enter the final month of the Clean Water program, your help is more important than ever. P&G has pledged to donate the equivalent of one day of clean drinking water for every participating P&G household product* purchased in Walmart stores or online at Walmart.ca from February 19 to March 19, 2015.

You can make a difference in someone’s life just by doing your regular weekly shop.  Let’s work together to educate Canadians about the importance of clean drinking water and reach our donation goal! With the help of the P&G Children’s Safe Drinking Water program, a little gesture will go a long way to making a big difference.