--- title: When it was my fault: owning up and making it right — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «When it was my fault: owning up and making it right», a lesson of the reflection course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: Sometimes the bad thing really was partly your fault, and the honest job is to own your part without drowning in it --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/reflection/5-when-it-was-my-fault-owning-up-and-making-it-right/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Reflection](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/reflection/) / When it was my fault: owning up and ma… # When it was my fault: owning up and making it right Lesson 5 of the reflection course of Mova's primary school: 17 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/reflection/5-when-it-was-my-fault-owning-up-and-making-it-right/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/reflection/5-when-it-was-my-fault-owning-up-and-making-it-right/0/) — Sometimes the bad thing really was partly your fault, and the honest job is to own your part without drowning in it: not "it's nothing to do with me" and not "I'm a horrible person", but "I did this, and here is how I'll put it right". - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/reflection/5-when-it-was-my-fault-owning-up-and-making-it-right/1/) — Noah's dad asked him to watch his little sister in the park while he took a call; Noah played on his phone, she fell off the climbing frame and broke her arm, and for weeks the sight of her cast made him feel sick: "If I'd been watching, she wouldn't have fallen." - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/reflection/5-when-it-was-my-fault-owning-up-and-making-it-right/2/) — Both things were true at once: accidents can happen even when someone is watching, and Dad himself said a nine-year-old should not have been left in charge so long; but Noah also learned to put the phone away when he is looking after someone. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/reflection/5-when-it-was-my-fault-owning-up-and-making-it-right/3/) — Guilt is useful when it tells you to care more next time, and useless when it just tells you to hate yourself every night; helping his sister while her arm healed did more for both of them than lying awake. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/reflection/5-when-it-was-my-fault-owning-up-and-making-it-right/4/) — Owning up early, even with a shaky voice ("I was too scared", "I was being lazy"), is braver than an invented excuse, and it usually makes the weight lighter. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/reflection/5-when-it-was-my-fault-owning-up-and-making-it-right/5/) — Owning up means saying honestly what your part was; it is usually braver and works out better than inventing an excuse. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/reflection/5-when-it-was-my-fault-owning-up-and-making-it-right/6/) — Accidents can happen even when people are watching, but not paying attention is still something to learn from. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/reflection/5-when-it-was-my-fault-owning-up-and-making-it-right/7/) — Useful guilt tells you to care more next time; it is not meant to make you hate yourself. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/reflection/5-when-it-was-my-fault-owning-up-and-making-it-right/8/) — Promises matter even when you are tired; showing up for people is one of the biggest ways to show you care, and friendship works both ways. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/reflection/5-when-it-was-my-fault-owning-up-and-making-it-right/9/) — Secrets about someone's feelings, like who they have a crush on, are especially private; what is funny to one person can be painful to another. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/reflection/5-when-it-was-my-fault-owning-up-and-making-it-right/10/) — Older people often feel lonely, and a short regular phone call can mean a lot to them; it is never too late to start calling again. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/reflection/5-when-it-was-my-fault-owning-up-and-making-it-right/11/) — Fear can make people quit; saying "I was too scared" is braver than pretending to be ill, and telling someone early gives them time to help. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/reflection/5-when-it-was-my-fault-owning-up-and-making-it-right/12/) — Forgetting things is normal; a system such as a notes page or a reminder board on the fridge helps more than blaming yourself. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/reflection/5-when-it-was-my-fault-owning-up-and-making-it-right/13/) — Bad moods can make us mean even to people we like; noticing it and making up for it is how we get kinder. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/reflection/5-when-it-was-my-fault-owning-up-and-making-it-right/14/) — When a secret is not dangerous, it is not ours to share; when it is about someone being hurt or in danger, telling a trusted adult is right. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/reflection/5-when-it-was-my-fault-owning-up-and-making-it-right/15/) — Little children remember being left out; giving them time and attention later is what makes it up to them. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/reflection/5-when-it-was-my-fault-owning-up-and-making-it-right/16/) — A near miss is when something bad almost happens; the brain keeps replaying "what could have happened" as a warning to be careful, not as a punishment. - ← previous: [Letting a friend down: broken promises and spilled secrets](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/reflection/4-letting-a-friend-down-broken-promises-and-spilled-secrets/) - next →: [Bitten, lost, hurt: when fear stays after the danger](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/reflection/6-bitten-lost-hurt-when-fear-stays-after-the-danger/) - ↑ back to [Reflection](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/reflection/)