Colorforms teach important life lessons about the limitations of caregivers and the importance of suppressing your feelings.

My daughter played with Colorforms for the first time today.

She loves the toy. Today she organized a baby’s birthday party, and as she assembled the people and balloons and cakes on the board, she narrated a rather complicated story for us.

It was fabulous.

There was only one problem.

This piece:

Clara did not like the way the dog was licking the cat, and so she tried to pull the pieces apart, assuming that they had inadvertently joined in the box.

She yanked. She pulled. She pinched. She grunted.

Eventually she handed the piece to me. “Daddy fix it!” she said, and when I failed, she turned to my wife. “Mommy, fix it!”

I briefly considered grabbing some scissors and cutting the piece down the middle, but then I realized that it was time for my daughter to learn an important life lesson:

Mommy and Daddy can’t fix everything.

It’s a sad but necessary truth of life.

Of course, when she wasn’t looking, I hid the piece.

I may not be able to fix it, but there’s nothing wrong with learning to compartmentalize your problems and stuffing your feelings away for another day.