He expects to pick things up without listening to instruction and when he doesn't get a concept in the first 5 seconds he is prone to melting down, going to dramatic lengths to brand the whole exercise completely impossible and stupid.
When he was much smaller and trying to get a t-shirt on, he struggled, descended into floods of tears and declared that now he'd have to eat his arm. It's become a family catch phrase for anything tricky.
"I can't get this jam lid off."
"You'll have to eat your arm."
Once he's actually overcome the difficulties and mastered a task he instantly transforms back into his usual, rational self. And he'll never ask for help with it again. Because it's easy now. Obviously.
I'm planning challenging situations and tough work. It's going to be a tricky couple of weeks. But who will eat their arm first?
