Mistake

It's late morning at the guesthouse in Chiang Mai, where we were having breakfast. That's when I'd stopped in the middle of the mealtime and gone for a few photographs.

"Daddy, you'd be away without telling us." My daughter looked at me like a teacher.

"I - I didn't know," I stuttered.

"You should have told us, and we didn't realize you'd been away so long."

"I didn't know it matter," I said, contrite an instant later at my defensive tone. "Daddy sometimes makes mistake."

I reckoned, pretty soon, that it's high time to teach my daughter that adults are entitled to be wrong and make mistakes. Why not? Everyone should have the license to make mistakes. During the recent Thailand trip, my daughter has been taking it oh-so-seriously whenever her drawing got outside the border (or when her cutting got awry). I can't teach her to make every drawing perfect, but I know I can tell her making mistakes is in many ways a birthright.