He: “It breaks my heart. You know that it breaks my heart when you break my mother’s pottery. We can’t get any more of it, you know”.
She: "oh honey. Please don’t say that. It breaks my heart when you say that. I am so sorry. I didn’t mean for that to happen, you know that. I try to be careful, but these things happen. They break easily, the ceramics. Please try to restore it. You do it so nicely, sometimes its impossible to notice.”
He: “you’re not careful enough. I’ve seen you handle it. Not carefully enough, and even if I glue it it will stay broken”.
She: "Maybe the best thing to do would be not to touch your mother’s pottery. We can go to Ikea, buy a set of plates and bowls, and leave these in the cupboard. Maybe that’s the best thing to do.”
He: “I want us to use them. I just want you to be more careful”.
She: “I will try. Here, take the glue. I’m sure you can do a great job here”.
He tries carefully to glue the pieces together: “It can’t be done. One piece is missing, throw it away”.
She: “No, I can’t throw it away. I will put it on the library, like this, see? No one can notice it was broken”.