(Even if you’ve completely screwed things up.)
Most people take pride in being able to do things on their own. It’s just satisfying to know that you can take care of something all by yourself. Granted, you may not get things quite right the first time, but dammit, you did it yourself, and that should count for something.
Right?
One part of the daily routine for the kids at my school is going to the park. Most of the kids are pretty young (the students range from 2 to 6 years old, the average age being 3-4) so they’re in that “playing equals getting dirty” age bracket. In an attempt to alleviate this, they have “park clothes” they have to change into before going out to play. It can be tiresome at times (ever tried to get 15 kids changed at the same time?), but I guess it’s worth it.
A lot of them are getting into that “independent” age where they want to do things by themselves. That’s cool by me, since it means less hassling with the 3 and 4 year olds and just dealing with the 2 year olds. They do their best, and can usually manage well enough, but there are still mistakes now and again.
Case in point:
If I hadn’t seen this, I’d swear it was impossible to put a shirt on upside down. Completely on, and yet upside down. (The way some kids’ clothes are designed makes it possible. Big heads and small necks means there need to be snaps along one shoulder to enable getting the shirt on, yet still having it fit snugly around their necks.)
The funniest part about this incident (aside from his mugging for the camera) was how proud he was. He’d put his shirt on and was all, “I did it!” not even noticing there was something odd about his tummy sticking out. I guess it’s good that he at least managed to get the picture on the front.
^.^