Should You Let Your Son Build Legos At The Breakfast Table?
Aug 23 2011

My son got a Lego City Helicopter Transporter (Amazon) set for his birthday, and he really got into building it this past weekend.  He was so engrossed that he brought all the little pieces to the breakfast table one morning.  I told him to wait until we finished breakfast, but he said he simply couldn’t and that he had to finish building this one little section.  He got his sister to help him bring all the little pieces from the couch, where he was working on it, to the table.  I wasn’t sure what to do.  On one hand, he listened to me and came to eat breakfast when I asked him to, on the other hand he didn’t buy into my statements that he might spill milk on them.  His response was that he would be very careful and not spill milk on them.

I wondered if I should let him do it since we usually eat breakfast pretty quickly and that morning we were having cereal.  So after a few times of me telling him to wait, his excitement and focus on building the helicopter & truck, me rationalizing that he’s not going to be doing that when he’s 19 (well who knows what he’ll be doing or eating in college), and finally wondering if this wishy washiness on my part was going to do long term damage to him, me or his sister, I just let him do it.  It was all over in 10-15 minutes.  His sister was conspiring by handing him extremely tiny Lego pieces as if he was a surgeon and she his assistant because I think she was a bit curious to see if he would get milk on his tiny (did I mention how small they are and how easily they could drop into a cereal bowl?) Lego pieces (as was I). I secretly wished he might so I could tell him “I told you so,” but at the same time I wished harder that he wouldn’t so he could feel justified in his stand.  No pieces got lost and none got milk on them and both he and his sister were pleased they finished building it.  That poor lucky boy…he’s going to be one of the few who gets the best of his momma…or sends her to the funny farm. 🙂

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