The Boy has wanted a beyblade for quite some time now. I didn’t even know what it was, and even after he explained it to me, I was still a little fuzzy on the details.

It is, in essence, a gyroscope. With pretend blades. That it uses to battle other gyroscopes.

We had a little trouble getting it working, though. Rather, getting “them” working, because he bought a pair so we could battle. I think it’s some knock-off version because absolutely nothing in the packaging was in English. That and the price. The whole process resulted in a lot of frustration for E because I wasn’t at first helping him figure it out.

At his age, the Boy doesn’t have a lot of coping mechanisms when frustration looms. We try to talk him through situations, and we try to get him to take breaks from frustrating situations, ask for help, try to approach the problem from a different perspective, but that’s all very cerebral and that frustration, I know, burns with an almost physical presence in the body.