If you want something very, very badly, let it go free.  If it comes back to you, it’s yours forever.  If it doesn’t, it was never yours to begin with. - Jesse Lair  (Quote Investigator)

I tried to explain the above saying to my 15 month old son today.  Of course it is a bit beyond him, but why not start early?  Or, in our case, when it seems extremely necessary.  My little man is infatuated with our mechanical vacuum, our Roomba, aka Marble (the girls named it, plus added a label in case we forget).  It could be love for our little man.  A pet that does not mind toys being placed on it's back or being followed around the room and poked.  A pet that will stop when he pushes the button and go when he pushes the same button again.  For our little man this has become a smothering sort of love: the type of love where he wants to sit on it and ride it around the room, as well as, a draining sort of love, the type of love where when Marble needs rest the little man wants it to move, so he pokes it, pushes it and screams at it. 

Our little man did not care for my explanation to let it be and it would come back.  If "mommy shut up" was in his vocabulary he would have used that phrase on me today.  Or if he had learned to cover my mouth, like his oldest sister did at the same age to quiet me, he would have done that.  Instead he pointed at Marble over and over, making his "mommy fix this!" noise.  I continued to attempt to explain the concept, in easier and easier terms, while he become more and more frustrated.  I think it ended with, "leave it alone".  I admit, not quite the lovely saying above, but a step above "leave it", which is what I use on our dog.  I felt this was the perfect situation to explain to my son relationships.  It is safe to teach him this with the Roomba, since, once charged, the Roomba will come back.  After all, once he is older I want to know he will give his significant other space. 

Yet after telling him to leave it over and over and seeing him slowly panic more and more (I assume he thought the Roomba was gone forever).  I decided to put the situation in terms that might have made more sense for the little man.  "The Roomba needs a nap.  It is nighty-nighty time for Roomba."  The little man may as well said, "ahhhhh".  He seemed much happier once he understood that even the mechanical pets need to sleep on occasion.  After leaving the Roomba tucked in having a nap, the little man went back to pushing his car around the room.  And chasing the cats.