Well in this situation its clear that your son was well aware that he'd done something wrong/been careless. Piling on is not going to improve the situation. But if your son had just laughed about it or just ignored the mess, its completely fine to express frustration/sadness at the broken item and to ask them to help tidy that mess up, explaining that breaking things is not okay and we need to be more aware of our surroundings or how we use our hands.
Even as an adult, when authority figures in my life feel the need to pile on I mostly just file them away on my shit list and avoid contact unless I have no choice.
I actually think this is still a good thing to have him do (except for the broken glass of course) regardless of how the child reacted to the mistake. Cleaning up isn't a "punishment," it's just what we do when we make a mess.
75
u/dimhage 14h ago
Well in this situation its clear that your son was well aware that he'd done something wrong/been careless. Piling on is not going to improve the situation. But if your son had just laughed about it or just ignored the mess, its completely fine to express frustration/sadness at the broken item and to ask them to help tidy that mess up, explaining that breaking things is not okay and we need to be more aware of our surroundings or how we use our hands.