Mountains and Molehills

This is my boy with his new pride and joy: a Pirate Nutcracker. I can't even tell you how much he loves this silly little thing that I found for $3.99 at Michaels. Landon loves anything with a sword, but in our house this year, nutcrackers are all the rage. So imagine my thrill to find a cheap nutcracker with a sword!?

So anyways, of course he wanted to play with it. I of course, explained that it wasn't a toy and more of a decoration. If he wanted to play with it he would have to be very careful.

Right. It lasted all of 5 minutes before he tripped with it and broke the sword right off.

We glued it and told him he couldn't play with it anymore and that it was just a decoration.
He cried.
We tried to explain it again.
He cried.
*sigh
"Ok Landon. You can play with it gently."
"Ok Mama. I will be g e n t l e.
*looking very serious with the slow head nod for the word "gentle".

This time it lasted about 10 minutes before the sword broke off again.
And now it's bedtime. And guess who wants to sleep with the silly thing. We have tears and all kinds of discussions about sleeping with wooden objects with sharp corners and wet wood glue. We finally just gave him a choice: it went downstairs or on his side table.
*side note to parents: choices are you and your child's BEST FRIENDS.

Next day: We make it half way through the morning when he remembers about it. Almost immediately the sword comes off. I got away with letting it "dry" all day. And by the evening when he began asking for it again and I was trying to talk him out of it, I realized just how silly we were being about it.

"Landon, whose nutcracker is it?" I asked him.
"Mine", he said.
"Right. So you know what - you should be able to enjoy it. I want you to LOVE it and play with it and use it."
Big smile spreads across his face, his eyes light up. That makes me smile (isn't that the point of me buying it in the first place??)
"I'm sorry buddy for not letting you have your own toy. Do you forgive me?"

I clarified with him that he didn't care that the sword was broken. Surprisingly, he didn't. He just wanted his very own "doll" to play and pretend with.

He's still not allowed to sleep with it, but he's definately allowed - encouraged even - to play with it and enjoy it. And if it ends up with 1 arm, a cracked skull and a broken nose, well he will either love it to literal bits and have enjoyed every second of it's little nutty life, or have learned a valuable lesson about breakable objects and that decorations don't make great toys.

Or do they?

Mountains or Molehills.
That's our choice as parents.
That's often our choice as humans in life and relationships for that matter.

Some things are mountains.
Some things feel like mountains.
Some things, if we can gain a little perspective are really just molehills.

If you've had any mountain vs molehill experiences, I'd love to hear about them!
:)