For my eldest son’s birthday, I bought him a small tool kit. One of those snap-the-tool-into-the-plastic-case jobbies. I figured I would get him a basic kit as one of those “Let us see what Squirt does” kind of gifts.
He loved it! He would show it to everybody who came to visit, he would tell complete strangers that he got the kit for his birthday.
He also started taking toys apart with it. Which is fine, although risky. Today I gave him an old printer to take apart – learn how things are assembled, without any risk.
He would get me to help him when he got stuck, and I’d help him a bit and let him continue. At one point, the printer case just needed some bigger muscle to “unsnap” it. In doing so, I snapped one of the screwdrivers in half.
My son was devastated.
He wept and wept and wept, and I felt terrible. The screw driver is unique, and it fits the case specifically. I had no idea where I could find a replacement. As he calmed down a bit, I took him out to the garage, sat him on a stool, and started making a new handle.
And here it is. And it fits the case, too.
Not the way I wanted to spend my evening, but a good opportunity to show how to deal with adversity. Plus, my son hates mistakes and craves perfection (as I do; go figure), so he got to see how I dealt with mistakes (and there were a few in the reproduction of the screwdriver).