Parent: Isn’t it a little early for you to be up?
Child: Yeah. I’ve got an early morning project to do.
Parent: Oh. What’s that?
Child: Promise you won’t tell?
Parent: Depends on what it is.
Child: Roz and I are going to sneak over to Mr. Williams house, before he wakes up …
Parent: To do what?
Child: We’re going to shovel his walk, without telling him who did it.
Parent: Ha. Why?
Child: Well, he always yells at us when we cut across his yard on the way home from school.
Parent: And?
Child: Well, he probably thinks we’re some kind of delinquents.
Parent: He does?
Child: Well, I’m guessing he does, because he yells at us.
Parent: What kind of person do you think he is?
Child: Well, I used to think he must be mean, for yelling at us.
Parent: But?
Child: But, maybe it’s hard to keep grass growing under those trees and he just wants us to use the sidewalk.
Parent: You are trying to look at it from his perspective. That’s nice. So; why the shoveling?
Child: Well. We thought; maybe he needs to have something nice happen to him for once. He seems kind of lonely.
Parent: Oh. That’s sweet. So, why are you going to do it in secret?
Child: That makes it more exciting.
Parent: And?
Child: And a little less scary.
Parent: Well, Good luck, secret agents.
Child: Thanks. Can Roz come over for cocoa after we are done?
Parent: Absolutely. I want to hear what happens. So where did this idea come from?
Child: We’ve been talking about relationships in school. How good feelings and bad feelings get started.
Parent: I like your teacher more everyday.
