When Life is Like “Star Wars”

The boy came downstairs wanting me to fix the lass’ marionette. It’s a simple little thing with a 4 strings attaching a ‘t’ to a puppet’s head, body and 2 legs. There was a twist or something in a couple of the strings and neither of the kids wanted to deal with it.

So naturally, in their minds, I was supposed to fix it.

And I said “No.”

The boy sat and worked at it for several minutes while I sat and read. I purposely avoided watching him because it makes him self conscious. I could tell it wasn’t going well based on all the noises emanating from his general direction. When I finally, did glance up at him, there were tears of frustration building. Finally, we flung it down on the ground, giving up.

I was a little disappointed with the antics, so I told him that wasn’t his toy to do that with. When he grumpily, and rudely, asked me “WHAT!!? I didn’t do anything,” I told him it was time for bed. Further protestations from him led to a brief reprimand for his attitude and making sure he understood “what” he’d done.

After he went upstairs to get ready for bed, I took the marionette and spent a couple minutes untangling the strings. I then headed upstairs and handed it back to the lass, whom thanked me for fixing it.

The boy was in bed by then but was unaware that I’d fixed the puppet. He called to his sister that it was hopelessly broken beyond fixing. The lass then informed him that Dad had fixed it. At the same time, knowing he wouldn’t believe her, I picked it up and brought it over to his room for him to witness that it had been fixed.

He was in a state of disbelief.

I didn’t bother saying anything because there was nothing I could say.

Situations like this actually crop up pretty frequently now. Some problem crops up which the kids try half-heartedly to fix and then it falls to me to fix it. I do so and then they are amazed and want to know how I did it. When I tell them I worked the problem, tried things, observed what happened, tried more things, they claim that’s what they did but it didn’t work.

It calls to mind the memorable scene from The Empire Strikes Back on Dagobah where Luke’s x-wing has sunk into a bog. Yoda tells him he can use the force to get it out, Luke tries a bit and fails. Yoda then does it for him.

Too bad I don’t get the lightsaber though.