My story is a little long... but here it is...
I try to teach my kids that there is no room in their lives for Cruelty!Our last trip really let me see how much they are learning.
We went in December 2014. I had them decorate stockings to hang in the windows and had coupons and stocking stuffers for them every morning they woke up. They were just simple little things like glow sticks or journals. Stickers and activity books. (yes, my kids still like those kind of things) The coupons were for things like a free ice cream sundae, or a free snow globe, a Disney shaped snack, or a candy from main street are some examples. Then they could cash them in with me or dad when they found something they really wanted and we could not tell them "no" because they wanted to use their coupon for it. So every morning, when they woke up, they would have all these small little things in their stockings along with their coupons for the day (they got 2 coupons every day).
Now, our first day there, they had decided to get into pin trading. So we got each one of them a lanyard and a starter pack of pins and then told them they could trade with the pins they didn't want. Fast forward to later in the afternoon that same day, my daughter had decided that she was going to collect the steampunk pins and had found a cast member that had the stitch steam punk pin. She was over the moon about this and just couldn't believe she had found it to trade as Stitch was her favorite. We had gone to Grand Floridian to see the ginger bread house and while there, we learned that the M. Mouse Mercantile shop had a pin board and according to the "source" on the monorail we met, they had some rather unique pins, so we promptly headed there and asked if we could see their pin trading boards and the CM asked if there was anything specific that we were looking for, so my daughter reaches down and pulls up her lanyard and finds that her Stitch pin is missing. She immediately gets upset and starts saying we need to go look for it and starts crying. It could have been any where. We had been to Disney Springs, Contemporary, Polly, and then GF...I tried to console her but she was just so upset about this it was her first traded pin... While she was crying, The CM was walking around and then comes up beside her and say's "is this the pin you lost?" and in his hand is the steam punk Stitch pin and the back clasp is off of it. My daughter just looked at him and couldn't believe it... she started crying even more. After she calmed down, she finally started looking at the pin boards and of coarse we have a great conversation with the CM, but while she and my son were browsing the boards, My son silently hits me on the side and points to a small pile of trash on the other side of the register that had the backing of a pin and the pin card in it with no pin inside...My son just looks at me and gets this huge smile on his face, but does not say a word.
The next day, both kids wake up and find their stockings billowing with small little happy goodness. They get their coupons and they ask me to hold on to them so they don't lose them. Today was MK day. First park day. We walk into the park and are meandering down main street in and out of shops and my son say's "Mom...my coupons today, they are for what again?" So I pull them out and 1 was for a free pretzel and the other was for a free mickey bar. So he say's "how much is a mickey bar or a pretzel?" I said well, it depends, but probably about 5-6 bucks depending on what you want. He thinks about it and hands me 2 gift cards and say's "ok, so for my coupons can you just put $5 on each of these gift cards for me?" I said "I can, but why? You have your magic bands if we aren't with you so you can just charge to the room." He said "I thought you couldn't refuse the coupons?" So I did as he asked and put $5 each 2 different girt cards and then gave them to him thinking he had something big in mind that he wanted and was just going to save up the value of the cards to purchase it with his saved money. He asked if he could have his coupons and he put both the coupons and the gift cards in his pocket. Fast forward to later that day. We are sitting on the curb watching people as we are waiting for the Electrical parade. Both the kids have snacks they are eating and then they ask for their glow stuff.(bracelet's, necklaces, earrings, rings, wands) I give it to them and they start asking other adults around them if it is ok for their kids to have some and they start sharing their glow stuff. Proud mom sits and just watches. Then, about 4 people down from us, we hear this little boy start crying. He was maybe 3 or 4. He had tripped and his knees were all scraped up and the palms of his hands were all red. My son got up, walked up to the little boys parents, said something really quiet and then knelt down by the little boy and said "hey, I just came from meeting Mickey. He heard you were hurt and wanted to help but couldn't leave all the other guests, so he asked me if I could give you this!" My son handed this little boy his Mickey Bar coupon and one of the gift cards I had loaded for him and then came and sat back down. That little boy just stopped crying on the spot and just the look he gave my son.... I just sat there.... I was so proud of my son when I figured out what it was he wanted to do with his coupons and gift cards. My daughter then did the same thing. There were some they couldn't do that with... but all their little snacks and trinkets...they would figure out the average cost, have me load it to a gift card and then present it to a child to spread their own magic. When I asked my son about this later... he said " I wanted to do for other people what that CM did for Savannah (his sister) when she lost her pin. "
