A Benjy Moment

Benjy did something that completely surprised me the other day. We went to McDonald's to meet Cyndi and Joey and let the kids play. I ordered the kids their food and we sat down in the play place and they ate. After we had been at the McDonald's for quite a while, Benjy came up to me and he was holding a drink cup with orange Hi-C in it. He had ordered apple juice with his kids meal, so I asked him where he had gotten the cup. He said that he asked someone for $2 to buy a drink and they had given him money to buy it. I was immediately skeptical of this story, and continued to ask him where he had gotten the cup, and whether he had found it on a table (which seemed the most likely scenario). He said that no, he had asked for a drink, and that a man had bought him one. I asked him who the man was, and he pointed to a man who was also sitting in the kids' area. 

Benjy was on the verge of tears from all the questioning, so I went over to the table where the man was sitting to see whether Benjy's story was true. The man was about my age and he was sitting at a table with what appeared to be his mother and a couple other adults. I asked him if Benjy had asked him for money, and the mother piped up and said that no, Benjy hadn't asked for money, he had come up to them at the cashier's counter and asked for a coke. They told him to ask the cashier for a cup, and she handed him a water cup. They told Benjy he couldn't get a coke with that, so the man then handed Benjy $2 and told him to ask if he could have a drink for that. I thanked the man for his kindness (despite my incredulity that he would just buy an unknown kid a drink and not ask where his mom was) and tried repeatedly to give him $2, but the man refused. 

After I got back to our table, Cyndi and I laughed until tears ran down our cheeks. I will definitely be addressing the many safety issues this incident raises, but since Benjy was so sensitive about it, I didn't want to come down too hard on him. I was pretty impressed with his initiative-- I want to encourage his go-getter spirit, and yet keep it within safe bounds.