Friday, June 01, 2007

Coloring on the Walls

Well, I found some beautiful artwork done by my precious little Sweet Pea this afternoon. It was beautiful. Bold colors: orange, blue, yellow...just beautiful. Covering the walls from my baseboards to as high as her little arms could reach.

I rewarded her for her job well done by handing her a sponge and showed her how to scrub. She scrubbed. And she scrubbed. And scrubbed....and scrubbed...and scrubbed.

She scrubbed the walls for a good 30 min. She scrubbed while I made dinner. I told her to scrub until the crayon was gone. It all had to come off.

She whined. She cried. She asked me to just spank her. She asked me to put her into time out. She scrubbed.

I scrubbed too. I also cooked dinner. When dinner was done, I sat her down. We discussed why she is not allowed to color on the walls. I informed her that if she did it again, she would have to clean it off again. She apologized and we ate dinner.

Later, I asked her if she wanted to color on the walls again. Her response: "NO! NO! NO COLORING, Mommy! NO COLORING!!!!"

Lesson learned? I think so.

2 comments:

Noel said...

I remember when mine colored on the walls the first time... I did roughly the same thing and CJ thought I was out of my mind, just staring at me and blinking for a moment, but he did it without a fight because he knew I was mad. Charlie whined and cried but he got tired (read: was too lazy) to stand there. Even so, I made him do it even if he took forever.

It's good we both find it unacceptable and can teach them not to do it by correcting their mistake first, and telling them why it was wrong and having them understand the punishment. That's the best way to teach.

Jennifer Swanepoel said...

Let the punishment fit the crime!

That's so funny that she asked for a spanking. LOL!