Little Miss Perfect

This was something interesting that popped up recently. My daughter has said wants to be absolutely, positively, perfectly perfect.

I guess it's not a recent occurrence. Rather, she finally admitted it to us last night. But we did notice that she was trying very hard to correct any and all mistakes she made. Case in point, she said something that I'd say was fairly rude. So, I called her on it. Her response was to say either one of her imaginary friends really said it, or she tried re-wording it into something else, when that wasn't what she said at all.

So, both Stacey and I called her out on that as well. That's when she told us that she just wanted to be a perfect daughter.

What?!

We were both pretty confused by this revelation. So, we talked to her about it. Specifically, that it's impossible to be perfect. It can't be done, and that it would drive you crazy to even try to become perfect. Everyone makes mistakes, we told her. It's normal. More specifically, we said it's okay to make mistakes.

"But you don't make any mistakes."

"Well, that's not true," I told her. "Mommy and I make lots of mistakes. It's a part of growing up. That's how you learn. Besides, how many times did you see me lose to Galactus in Marvel vs. Capcom 3?"

"Lots."

"See? I didn't get it right the first time."

In any case, we told her that she is a perfect daughter for us. But, that doesn't mean that she can try to pretend her mistakes never happened, or that she can pawn those mistakes off on others (real or imaginary). It's okay to be wrong; that's how we are supposed to learn.

Now whether she believe this is another story. So, I have a feeling this will be revisited again.