“A person who is nice to you but is not nice to the waiter is not a nice person”
I was a little torn with this quote, because I hate to be teaching that there are “not nice people” out there. Because, I think fundamentally, people are good. Sometimes their good is just buried. Really deep. But I do want to teach about “finding the good in everyone.”
However, I felt like it was the right quote for my kids this week.
As they are getting older, they are encountering more people, making new friends, and having different experiences.
Truth be told, they will bump into some “not so nice people”. I do want them to seek out the good in all people. However, I want them to surround themselves with great people. Sometimes, it takes a little effort to see if someone is “great”.
Just because someone is kind to one person, or even kind to you – doesn’t tell the whole tale. The biggest test in kindness, is how they are with a whole bunch of people. It’s easy to be nice to your “best friend”, but how do they treat the “unpopular kid”, their brother, their neighbor, the old man in the grocery store, their ex, and even their waiter?
THAT is the true test.
As parents, it’s a big test for us too, because our children our learning how to treat others by watching how we treat others. So we better make sure we treat that waiter right.