I have mentioned before that Liam is a perfectionist. He gets easily discouraged if he can't do something perfectly or to the high standard he has set for himself. His perfectionism is intensifying the older he gets Sitting down with him to do an art project has become a stressful experience...I watch him with dread, waiting for the inevitable tears when his drawing goes awry. It is heart wrenching to watch your child beat himself up over his perceived shortcomings. We have told Liam over and over that NO one is perfect and that everyone makes mistakes. This goes in one ear and out the other as quickly as he can crumble up his paper and throw it on the floor. The tricky thing with Liam is that he KNOWS when something does not look exactly like the picture in the book. Telling him that he did a great job only makes him angrier. "It is NOT the same! It does NOT look good! It IS different!!!" He does not miss a THING. Yesterday he asked me how to draw a sunflower...so I drew a more generic version of a flower anticipating that he too would want to draw it. This was NOT good enough. He said "Mommy! That is not a real sunflower! Do it the right way..." He misses nothing. I am waiting for the day when he flat out says "Stop patronizing me, woman!"
We continue to show him that we make mistakes, and that everything we have learned in our lives has taken time. No one knew how to ride a bike the first time they got on it--it takes time. Liam wants to master everything quickly. Any inability to achieve perfection he considers a failure. It breaks my heart to see him so hard on himself. I admit that I am very self critical...I would hate to see him go down the same road of beating himself up all the time for being less than perfect. Mom, i wasn't like that as a child, was I? I mean, I do remember the "I can't do anything right!! hammock/tent stitches incident...but other than that?
:-(
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