What $2 means to a 5yo and a 2yo

Been wanting to blog this event but wasn't sure how to approached it.

We've had an interesting "moment" happened to us where we saw total strangers putting money where their mouth is....this of course is the story of the $2 coins.

We went out for dinner one Sunday night (2 weeks ago) at Sutherland. It is about 45mins from us and half way distance to Sydney. We went there to meet up with an old friend of mine from Kuching who's here in Sydney promoting Sarawak (Sarawak Tourism Board) at the Travel & Holiday Expo.

We generally had a late night and we juggled the girls over their meals. Mathena wasn't feeling her best (for whatever reason she had a fever that day) and Letitia was quite tired from the day. I had a lovely time catching up with my friend, who's name is also Letitia (I loved that name from meeting this later and thus gave No 1 the exact name).

By around 8.30pm, we all took leave and started heading out the door. To our shock, a couple and another gentleman came towards us and started grabbing Alex by his hand. "We just wanted to say that we had the most pleasant dinner and that your kids were extremely well behaved!!" The other gentleman started shoving $2 coins in Letitia and Mathena's hand. The two girls were quite stunned and pleasantly surprised at the same time. Mathena started dancing in circles saying, "Money, money!"

Both Alex and myself were besides ourselves and we honestly did not know how to respond. I managed a "they have good days and bad days, tonight is a good one, thank you!!". I honestly did not keep a close eye on their behaviour, I was too busy socialising. Letitia was good with her dinner and ate her favourite noodles. Mathena struggled with her food but was happy to sit through most of the evening. They both had their own entertainment and colouring/activities to keep them occupied.

So, we ended the evening by re-enforcing the importance of "obedience" and "being good" to Letitia. Of course, we told them to put the coins in their animal banks (zebra and giraffe) to save up for their own houses. Sigh! It is nice to be "encouraged" as parents even if it is just once a year.