A long time ago, I bought a laser light device from the store. I was sold on the fact that it seemed like a Bluetooth speaker and if I could get the laser and lights on top of that, it seemed like a steal at $16. When I took it home, I found out it wasn’t a Bluetooth speaker at all. It just had a mode where it listens to the sound around it and would pulse the laser and lights to the sounds it hears.

After that fateful day, the device has gotten a lot of usage to my surprise. Most recently, it was part of the amazing bath time my wife promised the kids. That device has also been a nightlight, part of many play dates, and also numerous dance parties. My 5 year old daughter loves it so much that sometimes she would sneak around to use it.

One time recently, she wanted to plug the device in (without asking) and successfully accomplished her goal. To plug it in, she had to climb up on the counter and then avoid knocking anything down. Everything was all good, but apparently she ended up tripping on the laser light device while playing with it later. My wife already had a talk with her and I ended up having a duplicate talk with her since I didn’t know what happened. All I saw was that the device was plugged in and I didn’t want any of the kids plugging things into the outlet.

My daughter called herself a bad girl and I don’t know where it comes from. I tried to explain that just because me or my wife are trying to teach something doesn’t make anyone bad for not knowing. Making mistakes don’t make people bad also. It’s a part of learning and growing up. I tried to explain that when I was small, I needed to be taught these things also and that I eventually learned it. It doesn’t make me bad if I made mistakes along the way. It’s all a normal part of the process.

She seemed to understand in the moment, but it’s something that I need to pay more attention to and reinforce. I’m already trying to remind her all the time that she doesn’t need to be perfect and that being perfect isn’t a good thing because it’s not realistic. It also leads to a lot of stress that is unnecessary. Over time, she doesn’t hesitate to try things now since she doesn’t need to be perfect. Now it’s time to work on making sure that mistakes don’t indicate something is wrong with her character. She is great just the way she is and mistakes don’t change that.