I went into my daughter's room this morning to find writing and drawing on two walls. It was nearly a mural! There were happy faces and stars and blobs and scribbles, even her name in a couple of places. I asked her what it meant, she blamed her younger brother. Now, she is 5 years old, he is just about to turn 3. He doesn't know his letters, much less can he write any. And the marks higher up on the wall were too high for him to reach, even on his tippy-toes.
When was this done? On Memorial Day (what a memorable day it has now become!) while Daddy was going through fishing tackle and I was catching up on laundry and computing, etc.
When I asked my son who did it, he said they both did. So, I need to punish him for doing what he shouldn't have, and I need to punish her for that as well as for lying to me. It is pencil and not pen, so it should be easier to clean, but the walls are filthy enough that I will have to scrub the entire room to make it look halfway decent. That is not something I relish at this stage in pregnancy!
So, my question to you is, what punishment should I mete out? They are due to leave tomorrow to visit with grandparents for the weekend (a 3 hour trip away). Should I take this outing away from them? Or is there some other punishment? She had already been told not to touch a pen or pencil for a week due to leaving one out for her baby brother to get ahold of. And you can see that she did not obey that command. So, now what? What would you do as a parent? I am still waiting to hear back from hubby who is at work to see what he thinks...
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Comments: 10
My kids are 6,5,&4 and sometimes they still write on the wall! Now, it's not that i don't care, but it's not one of the fights I choose!
If they write on the wall anywhere but their room, they are responsible to clean it.
If it's in their own rooms, i usually don't make a big deal out of it. My kids rooms are drywall, and painted with kidguard paint. Twice a year we scrub the walls, and each spring we paint them! I say we, because each child helps in their room.
Personally i would be WAY more likely to delve out a punishment for the lying.
MY GF on the other hand dishes out strict grounding and taking away privelges for ANY mark at all, so I guess you have to decide how big a deal it is to YOU!
I always made them help scrub it. And I usually took the pencils/pens/crayons/markers/etc away from them for a while. They were not allowed to use them unless they were sitting at the table with a coloring book or paper. And if they lied about it they were disciplined for lying as a separate offense, normally a spanking and discussion (age appropriate) about lying.
Don't know if that helps or not, but that is what we did.
Maybe one of us is raising the next Rembrandt?!?!
Cindi, we rent, so it's not for us to paint. If it were our own house, I wouldn't make such a big deal about it, but anything beyond cleaning comes out of our own pocket and rent is high enough as it is.
As for the discipline, they are not going to be allowed to touch anything that "marks" for quite awhile. And I will have them "clean" the wall. I almost have a feeling it will be more fun than work. And the thing about it is, they will have their pleasure before the work and discipline if I do that. I have to leave in 15 minutes for numerous errands today and that leaves absolutely no time for the cleaning. They are supposed to leave early in the morning and not be back until Saturday afternoon. That is where I am at a loss. Already it has been postponed this long (I found out it was done on MONDAY and yet I didn't see it until Today!)
Why does parenting have to be such a difficult task at times?!
Debra, thanks for reminding me that it actually COULD be worse!