My 8 year old son Liam plays hockey in the basement with his friends. They are having fun. He makes a slap shot but hits the wall. He comes to me and tells me: Dad, I am sorry, i made a big scratch on the wall while playing hockey.
I go down to the basement to assess the damage. Minor scratch.
My answer: It was an accident, no worries, we will fix this later.
A few days later… Liam, let’s fix that little scratch.
We go to the basement, we find leftover paint,
I show Liam how to open the can and i give him a paint brush.
I teach him how to make the scratch disappear.
It took 15 minutes.
Liam, i am very proud of you. You made a scratch on the wall and now, you have fixed it.
I could’ve done this myself in 5 minutes but i decided to wait for the right moment.
This has nothing to do with a scratch on the wall.
It has everything to do with responsibilities and assuming the consequences of our mistakes. In life, accidents will happen.
The scratch was an excuse to teach my son about fixing things.
I start with the little things, it’s easier.
Original post Facebook, December 2017
Martin Pham Dinh 