Doing Good Together’s creator and Executive Director Jenny Friedman recently asked me to take a look at the ways in which doing good has become a habit in our home.

This was a good opportunity to take stock of all the little ways in which our family has adopted habits that foster empathy and community, exactly the reason I got involved with Doing Good Together in the first place.

As with any lifestyle change, the key to orienting my household to the DGT mission of creating caring children and a better world is simple. We began with one project, and looked for a way to fold it into our regular routine. After a while, we added another. At the moment, here is a list of our routine efforts:

• The Card-Making Station. Periodically I lead the charge to make cards for kids on the Make a Child Smile website, but almost daily my kids find someone to make a card for. Today it was a friend who busted her lip at school. Last week it was their grandpa who lost his wedding ring. Sometimes the things that inspire their empathy crack me up, the like the friend whose mom put away her Wii. The point is, they are exercising their empathy muscles often thanks to a little box with folded paper, envelops, magazine cut outs, stickers, glue, and markers.
• The Rubbish Race. We keep plastic bags in our “to the park” backpack, so every walk can be a garbage pick up walk.
• The food shelf and the homeless shelter. We make it a habit to pick up a few extra groceries (especially good staples when they go on sale) and keep a box going for the food shelter. Little Miss Three and I drop it off whenever it gets full. We try to do the same for the homeless shelter, keeping a box for gently used clothing, or new stuff (we buy extra socks, underwear, and other staples when we stock up at a good sale). The cost is minimal, but routine donations feel great and keep everyone thinking about others.
• Our Public Representatives. We post the addresses and pictures of our elected leaders to the fridge. Then, if a bit of news captures our imagination (like funding for public radio, housing shortages and homelessness, support for teachers and education) we can work together to dash off a letter and a picture very quickly.
• Enhanced Dinner Conversations: We try to routinely bring up the big ideas of being helpers, receiving help, and living in community. Questions like “Who did you help today” and “who helped you today” reinforce the importance of helping and accepting help. Also, we take care to point out everyday acts of neighborliness and community.

This list is sure to change and grow along with our family. I’m always getting ideas from the many other parents and bloggers and community-wide issues that inspire me, and inevitably some of those will transplant or add to our current routine. For now, I’m happy to see the progress we’ve made, intentionally considering the needs and concerns of others in our daily lives.

Tags: Big Ideas, Strengthening Our Family

About Sarah

Sarah Aadland is striving to make family volunteering a meaningful habit for her family of five. Join the conversation as she ponders what they may (or may not have) learned and looks for helpful information about raising compassionate kids.Though she plans to one day put her Masters in Public Policy back to work for social justice, she sees family volunteering as a way to build a stronger community, a better world, and a more connected family. In addition to her children, Sarah tends a large garden, a small flock of chickens, and a habit of mindfulness amid the necessary rituals of parenting.

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