I understand and recognize this behavior, I think HK was right on. CCN, if my dd6 knew that was possible she would do it! (I thought it was against the rules...) So I do think kids can mature out of it. But I think this kind of perfectionism carries a big risk when kids can give up on the thing that they may have the most natural talent and affinity for out of fear of failure. It makes me sad. I will say that dd12 has gotten much better as she has gotten older due to a similar approach to HK.