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Kind things to do from home

From your kitchen table or your front step. Several of these are aimed at people who come to your door regularly and have never been thanked by anyone inside it.

Showing 1–30 of 122 ideas

• Read the form out loud for someone

  Around one in six adults reads below the level most official forms are written at.

  Half an hourFreeA neighbor

• Keep sending the birthday card after the divorce

  Children lose half their extended family in a separation, usually without anyone deciding that should happen.

  5 minutesUnder $10A friend

• Read the book your teenager is reading

  It gives you a subject that is not school, not their friends and not anything they have to defend.

  OngoingUnder $10A friend

• Give money without making it a loan

  A loan between friends creates a debt that outlasts the need. A gift, clearly stated, does not.

  5 minutesMore than $10A friend

• Find the subscriptions someone forgot about

  Most households pay for several things nobody uses. Finding them is an hour's work and a permanent saving.

  An afternoonFreeA friend

• Offer somewhere quiet without making it a thing

  Loud rooms are genuinely painful for some people, and asking for quiet in a group is socially expensive.

  5 minutesFreeA friend

• Give the good version away, not the worn-out one

  Charity shops and refuges throw away an enormous amount of what is donated because it was not really a gift.

  Half an hourFreeA stranger

• Let a child finish the sentence

  Adults complete children's sentences constantly, and the child learns that their version was not worth waiting for.

  5 minutesFreeA friend1 person did this

• Make leaving early unremarkable

  Chronic illness, anxiety and pain all mean sometimes going home. The hard part is having to explain in front of everyone.

  5 minutesFreeA friend

• Learn the names of your child's friends

  Knowing who is who turns 'how was school' into a conversation that can actually go somewhere.

  5 minutesFreeA friend

• Let a child overhear you praising them

  Praise reported to a third party is believed in a way that praise delivered directly is not.

  5 minutesFreeA friend

• Look, the tenth time they ask

  A child asking you to watch the same trick again is asking whether they are still interesting to you.

  5 minutesFreeA friend

• Teach a child something genuinely useful

  Changing a tire, wiring a plug, making one good meal. Competence is a form of confidence that lasts.

  An afternoonUnder $10A friend

• Invite the new family twice

  The first invitation is often declined out of uncertainty. The second is the one that establishes it was real.

  5 minutesFreeA neighbor

• Check whether someone is on a social tariff

  Discounted broadband, water and energy tariffs exist for low-income households and take-up is tiny.

  Half an hourFreeA neighbor

• Apologize to a child properly

  Adults rarely apologize downwards, and a child who is never apologized to learns that power decides who was wrong.

  5 minutesFreeA friend

• Ask someone to teach you their food

  Being asked to share something from home reverses the usual direction, where the newcomer receives and thanks.

  An afternoonUnder $10A neighbor

• Answer a child as if they could understand

  Children ask real questions and get deflections. A serious answer is memorable precisely because it is so unusual.

  5 minutesFreeA friend

• Let a child help badly

  Doing it yourself is faster every single time, and the accumulated effect of that is a teenager who cannot cook.

  Half an hourFreeA friend

• Be in the same room doing nothing

  Children disclose things sideways, during dull shared time, not when asked directly how they are.

  Half an hourFreeA friend

• Move your bin off the pavement

  Bins, bikes and parked cars narrow pavements to the point where a wheelchair has to go into the road.

  5 minutesFreeA neighbor

• Be the house where the friends come

  Teenagers need somewhere that is not a bedroom and not a street. Somebody's kitchen is the whole infrastructure.

  OngoingUnder $10A friend

• Tell a young person about your own failure

  Young people assume competent adults were always competent, which makes their own struggle feel disqualifying.

  5 minutesFreeA friend

• Write down the thing a child said

  Every parent believes they will remember. Almost none do, and the exact words are what disappear first.

  5 minutesFreeA friend

• Tell someone about money they are entitled to

  Billions in benefits, reliefs and refunds go unclaimed every year, mostly by people who do not know they qualify.

  Half an hourFreeA friend

• Tell a teacher what they did for your child

  Teachers hear from parents almost exclusively about problems. Specific praise is rare enough to be kept for years.

  5 minutesFreeA stranger

• Find a chair before anyone asks

  Standing is the hidden barrier at parties, queues and exhibitions, and asking for a seat means explaining why.

  5 minutesFreeA friend

• Praise the effort where the result was bad

  A young person who worked hard and failed will be told the result was disappointing by everyone else.

  5 minutesFreeA friend1 person did this

• Return it better than you got it

  The borrowed car with a full tank, the returned dish with something in it. The margin is what people remember.

  Half an hourUnder $10A neighbor

• Help with the deposit, not the rent

  A one-off lump unlocks a situation. Ongoing help postpones one, and is far harder to stop.

  5 minutesMore than $10A friend