A few years ago, I was flipping channels and caught an episode of Dr. Phil. He had on guest who, as a child, had been asked to watch her little brother in the bath. She left the toddler alone in the tub and consequently the toddler was burned because he had turned on the hot water. I think she was 8 when this happened and had not be able to get over it.
Now I'm not a Dr. Phil disciple by any means, but every now then he will make sense. He told his guest that she was not to blame for the accident, because she was not old enough to have the life experience that could foresee that type of danger. Adults forget that they had to learn the stove was hot by touching it even after they were told not to. Relationships between event and consequence are mostly learned through experience.
Today Sammie had a play date with a really neat kiddo. We were watching him while his mom ran some errands. On his mom's return he wanted to show off some of his ball handing skills. Of course the mom chorus of "don't' throw the ball in the house" began and of course, it fell on deaf ears. As they were packing up to leave the little boy wanted one more "super bounce". With all his might he bounced the ball into a picture frame on the wall and it crashed to the ground and broke. I saw the immediate panic on my friends face. We have all been there, you know you have to parent your child in front of someone. Never fun or easy. You don't want to over react or under react. What do you do??? I hope I put my friend at eaze. Accidents happen. Always have, always will. I immediately thought of Dr. Phil. I wasn't mad, what good would that do? We get a new frame,no biggie. However, today is the day that Sammie and Nathan can check off the "why we don't throw balls in the house" on their little life experience checklist :0)
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