Spelling test day again today. One wrong. Disaster.

It’s Friday and it’s fair to say we’re all feeling a little tired this week from the groundhog day experience that is lockdown 3.0. So with three hormone filled females in the house, emotions are to be expected. Even in the mini ones.

Tiredness in our house can often bring with it negativity and self-doubt. It’s a trait in some of us that I wish I could extract like a bad tooth but it’s not that simple. It’s a part of life and mental health that we all have to grapple with in one way or another. My way, is to go Mummy Psychologist on the situation and today I was on fire!

All focus was on the one incorrectly spelled word in the spelling test. The one mistake. One! Out of 15! What about the other 14 you got right was my first exclamation. But the tears were too focused on the one. The lightbulb appeared and Mummy Psych pulled out the Lego. 14 colourful pieces in varying shapes and sizes in one pile and a small lonely ‘one-er’ was placed to one side.

^{What is your focus on?}

Great laughter ensued when I swept the pile of 14 off the table – in over-dramatic style for effect – claiming that when we focus on the one mistake, we dismiss all the good and it becomes useless. After collecting the discarded pieces from the floor, I then challenged the teary-laughing One to make something out of it. Anything. Some kind of robot shop was created and I praised the creativity and greatness of this new thing. This wonderful thing that came from all the good. Then I asked if she could make anything from the lone piece. “No” she said. And that there was the point… and the smile. When we focus on the positive, on the successes, we can make something out of it and we forget about that mistake we made.

And then the piece de resistance of the moment… I slid the lone piece into her creation so it blended in and supported it.

Oh I felt so proud of myself! And the tears had stopped. Success!

It could have just been the distraction of Lego of course but I’m holding on to the fact it’s a life lesson she’ll remember forever…?!

If only the people we love could see themselves through our eyes, life would be so much easier.

For now,