Orange Peel People

Adults and kids weigh in on the small gestures that make life a little easier

A drip-proof popsicle and flowers provided by my valentine + Orange Peel Person when I was sick with the flu. Note the filled humidifier in the background. I’ve never filled it. (Photo belongs to Author)

Peeling an orange is easy, but it’s better when someone else does it.

My mom still has an assembly line of lunches each morning. It’s shorter now, but over the years she’s had five kids and a husband each with different lunch requests. Any time she’d give us an orange, it was always peeled. And if we had tuna fish, there was a mint taped to the sandwich bag for after lunch. My dad still insists on driving me to the airport even though Logan Express is 0.1 miles from my home. This brings me to the Orange Peel Theory and Orange Peel Test. This TikTok trend, which started with a slideshow of screenshots of a former couple. One ex texted the other “I miss when you would peel my oranges for me in the morning.” From there, people posted videos asking their partner for an orange. If the partner peeled the orange or offered to peel it without being asked, the Orange Peel Theory states that it’s an indicator that you’re in a healthy relationship

Valentine’s Day is the perfect day to share and celebrate these seemingly small acts of kindness that say “I want your life to be easier.” Does it get better than that? I asked my friends on social media AND my fifth grade students to share personal examples of Orange Peel gestures. Reading these responses made me smile (and some made me tear up).

I hope that they bring you some joy today, too.

Orange Peel Responses (adults)

There are plenty of repeats and I chose to keep them in there so that you can notice common themes (coffee, water, and car maintenance are huge!)

1. My dad drives by my house and takes the barrels in every trash day before I get home
2. Makes my coffee every morning
3. Buys me coffee because he knows it’s my self proclaimed love language
4. Folds my clothes
5. Takes my glasses of when I fall asleep
6. Locks the doors every night
7. Food shopping
8. Always folds my laundry
9. Puts my emotional support water bottle on my nightstand for me
10. Always puts a glass of water / fills my water bottle next to the bed
11. Brings in my groceries
12. When Mom makes lunch for her adult children and leaves notes on napkins, always (submitted by my sister)
13. Brings me up a cup of water every night before bed
14. Makes my coffee every single morning
15. Filling my water bottle with ice and water
16. Making my bed and lunch, thanks mom (submitted by my other sister)
17. Opening my car door
18. Pumps my gas
19. Makes me lunch (submitted by my fiance)
20. Drives my car for me when I don’t want to
21. Makes my coffee
22. When I sit down at night, he gets up, gets my blanket, and puts it over me. Every time.
23. My mom: she does ALL the laundry still
24. Fills my gas tank and gets my oil changed
25. Warms my towels while I’m in the shower…it feels like a warm hug getting out of the shower
26. Puts ice cubes from the tray to a bowl or in my glass because I don’t like to pry them out
27. Starts my car to have it warm for me
28. Takes the trash out
29. Washes the bottle that I drink my greens from every day, no questions asked
30. Makes hot coffee for me in the morning even though he drinks cold brew
31. My dad always unties our sneakers when they’re next to the door so we can slip them back on more easily
32. My dad gives us all (my mom, siblings, spouses) AAA memberships every year (mine does this too! Dads are so good at orange peeling!)
33. If I request a prescription refill, my husband gets the text and automatically picks it up for me. His love language is acts of service.
34. My dad always has chocolate covered raisins at the house because he knows I love them, he doesn’t even like them
35. We don’t have assigned parking spots at work, but for one of my coworkers I always leave the first spot for her (even if I get there before her)
36. For another coworker, I always open her office door and turn her lights on (because she’s usually carrying a lot with her).
37. My coworker arrives first and makes a pot of coffee for the rest of the office. It’s a small gesture to her but the biggest and most appreciated gesture to me
38. Starts my car in the morning
39. Cleans my car off after a snowstorm
40. Fills my gas tank
41. Always cleans my car and makes sure he’s started it before I go out
42. I always make sure he takes his cancer meds. So I fill his pill case every week for him.
43. Brings me coffee first thing in the morning in bed.
44. My mom empties and loads the dishwasher when she comes to watch the kids
45. My dad clears my car when there’s snow even though I’m 43. (Submitted by the daughter of the Dad below)
46. My daughter will get up very early on a Saturday morning to drive me to the airport because for some unknown reason, I need to be there at least 3 hours before my flight! (Submitted bythe dad of the above 43 year old above)
47. I always hold the door for people and so does my son.
48. I send cards to friends to tell them how much I appreciate their friendship! Sometimes on a special day, but mostly at random to show them how much I feel blessed to have them in my life. (Submitted by my coworker who has given me a few kindness rocks randomly. I love looking at them on my desk).
49. Switches over laundry
50. My daughter (who is in fifth grade) always makes me a coffee and puts in the perfect amount of milk if she gets up before me.
51. When my mom comes over and sees dishes in the sink, she always does them.
52. My mom also knows Thursdays are my hectic days so she always takes my daughter e to dance for me so I don’t have to rush.
53. My late husband would check my Pinterest and surprise me and make me things I had pinned.
54. I don’t typically work Fridays but when I do, my coworker gets me my favorite bagel on her way to work!
55. When something I like is out of stock at Market Basket, he always stops at a different grocery store within a few days to pick it up.
56. My husband makes me coffee in the morning which is an act of love because he drinks iced coffee so his is already made in the fridge.
57. My husband drives whenever we go somewhere so I don’t have to
58. My boyfriend always pumps my gas/starts my car for me…. So much that when I had to actually pump my own gas I thought “this feels weird”. He also ALWAYS get my oil changed and a car wash
59. My daughter saying “goodnight, love you” with a kiss on the cheek (submitted by my mom. She said she loves that we all did this. I wonder where we learned it?!)
60. My daughter writing the week’s schedule on the fridge calendar with events and appointments.
61. My husband always gets gas for my car, and washes my car. He takes out the trash faithfully, vacuums, builds lovely fires in the fireplace, puts the clothes in the dryer…..and I never have to ask or remind him of any of these. Blessed!
62. I still peel oranges for my kids even though I’m allergic.
63. I’m also the care package sender, the driving way out of my way to help out person, the late night call taker for even my kids’ friends and my husband supports it all. I know that he would rather have the uninterrupted sleep but after all of these years he gets it and is willing to just go along for the ride.
64. Puts a snow brush in my trunk in the fall so it’s there when I need it.
65. Always makes sure I have a bottle of water on my nightstand
66. My dad puts our laundry away when is babysitting my youngest and always brings treats that I like!
67. My mom cleans (all the things) every time she comes over
68. Puts the outside light on if I’m getting home after dark.
69. He takes all 3 kids to the grocery store
70. My mom always helps clean my house and puts away laundry
71. My dad always cleans off my car, fill up my gas tank, calls me randomly-seems to always know when I need it too
72. My partner picks up my daughter from school every day so I don’t have to worry, also starts dinner before I get home from work. Goes to every sporting event under the sun with me.
73. Cuts up melon for me, makes me tea without me asking, making me coffee in the morning.
74. My husband makes my kid’s breakfast and their lunches school mornings just so I can sleep in a little longer
75. Cuts the grass in Maine for me.
76. Will occasionally go out of her way after a long day at work to surprise me with my favorite Jimmy John’s tuna fish sub!
77. My colleague unexpectedly brings me a Starbucks skinny chai latte, more often than not!
78. I am old school and still use cash. It appears in my wallet every Thursday night thanks to my husband!
79. I put a quote of the day in the kids lunch every day.
80. He leave a coffee cup under the Keurig with a coffee pod ready to go before I get up.
81. My mom does the laundry when she comes to stay.
82. My coworker and I swap Wednesdays to bring each other a Starbucks latte to work.
83. My husband always re-adds the water to the Keurig for me and sets it to 6oz ( my setting ) once he’s done making his coffee. He’s up and out earlier than I am, so I can just come down and press a button.
84. My partner will take the dogs out in the morning, specifically the weekends to let me sleep. This is huge deal when we have foster dogs! He accepted my passion for being a dog foster mom but he just takes on a lot of the care too, without being asked.
85. He hires a housekeeper so it’s less work on me day to day!
86. Always get my favorite snack when he goes to the store
87. My son is 23 and gets up at 5am for work. I can sleep in but I choose to get up 10 Mins before him and make his tea some mornings he is quiet other mornings the 10–15 mins we have together is a great conversation between us.
88. My husband always make sure the tea pot water is full and both mine and my sons cups are out for us
89. I’m not a morning person. My husband brings the kids to school everyday so I can sleep a bit later and wakeup slow — there’s always a cup of coffee on my nightstand when I wake up
90. I ask him for my kind of orange and he helps me grow an orange tree. (love this so much)

Clementine Peel Responses (fifth graders)

Here’s some proof that the kids are alright

1. My mom always puts my laundry away. And she always cleans it for me.
2. Helps me build stuff in Roblox.
3. A classmate let me borrow a pencil
4. When we get ready for school my mom makes sure that we have everything for school!
5. My mom always is kind about everything
6. When my mom does the laundry, I usually help her fold all the clothes and deliver it to everyone’s room.
7. My sister cleans up my mess every time when I’m busy or when I’m not home
8. Every morning even on the weekend, my dad makes my breakfast so I always find it ready.
9. My dad always clears my windowsill so I can put my water bottles on it.
10. Whenever I’m about to get into the car my little brother runs in front and opens the door for me.
11. A classmate let me borrow a purple marker.
12. My dad would drive me to pre school and give me Oreos.
13. Every time I walk home to my dad’s house he makes me an after school snack. Sometimes he makes brownies or soft pretzels.
14. My sister gives me some of her food when I am still hungry.
15. My classmates all support each other.
16. Holding the door
17. A classmate passed out all of the iPads at school.
18. At night I have a night light and when I fall asleep my dad comes and shuts it off for me!
19. My mom does my laundry and cleans my cleats .
20. My dad fills my water bottle everyday.
21. Whenever I drink tea, my dad brings it to me.
22. Saying hi when I walk by
23. A small gesture of kindness is when my grandmother makes me dinner.
24. Whenever I ask my mom for a banana, an apple, or an orange she will always give it to me peeled or cut.
25. My dad always makes my bed when were on vacations
26. A small gesture of kindness that someone does for me is how one friend brings snacks for me and another friend because if the lunch we buy is bad, then he’ll help me out with giving me a snack.
27. One gesture of kindness that someone does for me is when I miss a shot in warmups at basketball practice my friend always runs to get the ball for me with out being asked.
28. When I am in bed, my mom comes up to me and asked me do you need anything
29. Every morning my brother brings my shoes for me before I leave for school
30. When Ms. C gives us homework passes.
31. A small gesture of kindness is when my friend always gives me a hug when I walk into dance.
32. When coaches give us little origami baskets with m&ms and Hershey kisses
33. Another small gesture of kindness is that when I go to dance and a person on my competition always smiles at me and helps me. She feels like a big sister.
34. Another one is when my mom has the day off on Fridays I always come home to a delicious meal, because she knows that I will be hungry.
35. A small gesture of kindness that someone does for me is how whenever I had a bad day or anything bad happened to me, my dad will go out of his way to try to make me feel better.
36. A small act of kindness that I do for other people is cleaning up the table after dinner.
37. Be kind to people and my family.
38. I help my classmates with math if they don’t understand how to do the problem.
39. A small gesture that I can do is taking out the trash without my dad asking.
40. Help with the kindergartners at after school
41. I peel my friend’s oranges every day
42. A small gesture of kindness that I did is I always say hi to everybody when I walk into school
43. I write a note for my dad every night and leave it on top of his lunch container so he can read it at work

I want to end with this sentiment that one of my friends shared. She is talking about her relationship with her husband, but I think that this can be applied to any relationship in our lives:

We always put each other first and choose happiness instead of looking for faults. I feel like that is the key to being as happy as we are, we aren’t competing or looking for reasons to fight, we look for reasons to celebrate each other.

Happy Peeling, friends!