It'll Be Perfect

The other night Bob was on bedtime duty. All the kids were in bed, except Beth, who was still getting into PJs and also needed to put her bed back together (we'd washed her bedding earlier in the day). So Bob waited patiently downstairs for Beth to be in her PJs and to let him know she was ready for him to come up.

It was taking a rather long time, and finally Bob looked up the stairs, about to ask Beth if she was ready. There she was, with her little lip trembling as she tried to bite back her tears. Bob asked her what was wrong and she burst into tears and semi-wails!

"I can't put my sheets on my bed!"

Bob quickly mounted the stairs, cuddled her up and told her he could help her. So together they went back to her room, sheets in hand, to put the bed together. Just as it was "completed", Bob noticed that Beth was carefully smoothing out one particular corner. He mentioned that it was all together and she could get into bed and he'd tuck her in.

"No, Daddy. It's not perfect!" came the quiet, and almost panicked, reply.

Knowing that perfection was something Beth really struggles with and that when she gets stuck on the "perfection" concept it's almost impossible to pull her away until she's mastered whatever it is, Bob had some quick thinking to do.

"It'll be perfect when I tuck you in."

Daddies have a wonderful, magic touch with little ones. Even Beth, with her obsession for perfection, could not deny the magic of Daddy. So he tucked her in, and then the bed was perfect.