What you sow, they will reap

Well, we all know there is no use crying over spilled milk.

But this story is different. It is about how the little boy who spilled the milk went on to become a world renowned scientist.

He was then a five-year-old. As he was trying to remove a vessel of milk from the refrigerator he lost his grip on the vessel and it fell, spilling its contents all over the kitchen floor - a veritable sea of milk!

When his mother came into the kitchen, instead of yelling at him, giving him a lecture, or punishing him she said, Robert, what a great and wonderful mess you have made! I have rarely seen such a huge puddle of milk. Well, the damage has already been done. Would you like to get down and play in the milk for a few minutes before we clean it up? Indeed, he did.

After a few minutes his mother said, You know, Robert, whenever you make a mess like this, eventually you have to clean it up and restore everything to its proper order. So, how would you like to do that? We could use a sponge, a towel, or a mop. Which do you prefer? He chose the sponge and together they cleaned up the spilled milk.

His mother then said, You know, what we have here is a failed experiment in how to effectively carry a big vessel of milk with two tiny hands. Let's go out in the backyard and fill the vessel with water and see if you can discover a way to carry it without dropping it. The little boy learned that if he grasped the vessel by balancing the weight in both the hands than over-burdening one of the hands, he could carry it without dropping it. What a wonderful lesson!

The now renowned scientist, when only five learned that he needn't be afraid of making mistakes. Instead, he learned that mistakes were just opportunities for learning something new, which, after all, is what scientific experiments are all about. Even if the experiment 'doesn't work', we usually learn something valuable from it.

Wouldn't it be great if all parents respond the way Robert's mother responded to him?
As parents, each day of our lives we make deposits in the memory banks of our children. Beware of what you are depositing into the minds of the little ones - after all, what you sow at five is what the children will reap for the rest of their lives.