When Dad Makes A Mistake (or Two) | 2011

Kids grow up so fast these days. And they seem to be smarter and more curious about the world than we were. During his explorations and expeditions, Jakjak managed to make mistakes and accidents happen around him spontaneously. Because of this, I had always been too quick to judge his adventurous nature as the cause of most bangs and crashes wherever we were (the other half would have been caused by his mum).


Jakjak also managed to amass a good number of toys that we had stashed in his room over 5 years. Some have come and gone to his younger cousins, some have gone to charity and some (if not most) have gone to the bin. Those binned broken toys have become less as he grew up, but there are still toys that seem to "mysteriously" disappear every now and then. Some find their way back, and some don't. But because he has too many toys to account for, sometimes we don't even know which one has gone missing, except for his "favourite" toys (which is still a lot).


One day, the tailfin of his newly acquired transport plane went missing. And since I liked that plane as well, I was quite cross. I told him that he wouldn't be able to get any new toy until he found that missing tailfin. It's been a week snce the tailfin got lost and I had already been searching along with him all throughout the house (our flat is NOT big and I have already turned it over twice!), but have not found a clue to where it has gone. "Dad, I only played with it in our room", was the standard reply from Jakjak.


I finally found the tailfin.
Stashed in one of the boxes of our Tomy town buildings.
And yes, he didn't put it there (his playmate did). 


"See Dad! I told you I only played with it in our room".

He got me. The brilliant little bugger. It was like one of those revelation moments that a spiritual being had spoken a mysterious truth and you are having difficulties understanding what it actually meant. So, I apologize to the lad and admit that I had been wrong about that inicident. 


I don't see anything wrong with admitting something that was true. I don't see anything wrong telling my son that dads make mistakes too. In fact, I think he should know that his dad isn't perfect, but he should also feel that his dad is still his dad. There is a thing called fear, and a thing called respect. There is a big difference, and children will not understand that difference until after a few more years into their lives. It's important that he does not mistake one for the other, and this is where parents need to be a little bit wary of when dealing with their children.