One Step Forward…

… one step back. First, the step forward.

One thing that we’ve are trying to instill into the boy (and the lass) is that while mistakes should be avoided if possible, they are still going to happen and when they do what matters is how he deals with the mistake. One simple, and fairly insignificant, example is spills.

When he spills something, he tends to freeze up and get REALLY mad. To the point where he won’t respond to polite suggestions that all he has to do is clean up the mess. I don’t know if this response is typical of children his age or if it’s a trait that’s his and he’ll have to work on his whole life. Regardless the mechanism, we’re working to teach him a preferrable way.

Well, tonight he had an accident and, to my surprise, got up from his chair immediately to go get something to wipe it up. I missed the initial spill, and it was the lass who gave him up. Likely in the hopes of getting him in trouble. For his part, the boy kept telling her not to say anything. Some mild comedy there.

I gave him credit for taking the initiative and then helped him finish with the clean up. Unfortunately, the step backward was only a minute away.

The lass was having a drink and decided she wanted to get in on the act by ‘helping’ her brother. In her haste to put her cup down, she set it smack in the middle of the ketchup on her plate. The boy thought her mistake hilarious.

It was so hilarious that he reasoned that the only thing funnier would be if his sister had ketchup all over her hand. So he grabbed her hand and shoved it into the ketchup. For her part, she thought it was kind of funny.

What could I do other than shake my head at that point?

I have to give him credit for quick thinking though. When he realized he’d overplayed his hand, he said “I did it so she wouldn’t have to dip the fries in the ketchup. Now she just has to pick up the fries with her hands and they’ll get ketchup on them.”

Yeah. Right.