The Scientist in the Bathtub

So earlier this afternoon I would have titled this entry, "I'm turning my son into a liar." Let me explain. Lately he has been very experimental with things. Any object he finds he creates something new or figures out different uses for it. He was recently gifted a stroller for his half birthday and the experimenter instinct was lit. He decided to sit in it and it broke. Then he decided to pull the rubber handle off, "Mama, will this float in the bathtub?" All I could so with both incidents was how he was destroying his toys that I paid hard earned money for. My response, "I will not be buying you any new toys anytime soon until you learn how to take care of them." What kind of response is that to a scientist who is simply following his curious nature and interest in how things work. I'll end up creating a child who will be afraid to tell me that he broke something for fear of being punished and/or having something taken away. I am so glad to had some time to myself this evening to reflect on my behavior which allowed me to see how wrong and unsupportive my response was. This evening ended on a positive note. I repaired the stroller and the scientist was once again ready to explore. This time I took myself/ego out of it and just observed enjoying the discovery.