There’s something beautifully ambitious about teenagers and their craft projects. My daughter had this brilliant vision of turning her favourite hoodie into a Halloween costume by adding cardboard wings with a hot glue gun. The operative word here being “had” – past tense – because now we’re dealing with the aftermath of glue-encrusted fabric and a valuable lesson learned.

This whole situation got me thinking about the nature of learning through mistakes, and how we navigate that fine line between protecting our kids and letting them figure things out the hard way. When she showed me the hoodie, covered in hot glue residue where the wings had been, I’ll admit my first instinct was frustration. Not at her, really, but at the situation. It’s her favourite hoodie, after all.