The writing on the wall
”I’m just getting some toys mummy’ Ted said as he thundered down the corridor to his bedroom. A few minutes later he was still in his room so I stuck my head down the hall to have a look at him. He was sat on his bed reading books, I could still hear him and by the time I’d finished changing the baby five minutes later he’d reappeared so I thought no more of it.
It was only an hour later when I walked into his bedroom to check for washing that I noticed my little Picasso’s masterpiece.
We Live in a rental so my first reaction was ‘oh.. Crap’ It would’ve been easy to have gotten cross but thankfully my time as a preschool teacher has left me with near unbreakable patience in regards to my children and an understanding that this is what kids do.
It’s fine to say that kids should know better, but do they? I’ve never sat my child down and told him not to draw on walls, why would I? its not something that crossed my mind. Yes, it is frustrating, having to fork out the money and find the time to repaint the wall but most young preschool children have zero idea what that entails, something I consider to be lucky seeing as there are children out there who are not so fortunate. As I questioned Ted about what had happened I realised that he had absolutely no idea that what he had done was wrong and because I was changing the baby and wasn’t in the room at the time to stop him he’d come back into the front room to play and had forgotten about it. Ted’s a good kid and he wouldn’t intentionally do something that would upset.
I knew that he was reading books and that was fine, I just didn’t realise that he had been reading a dot to dot book which comes with a pen.. oops!
we had a little chat and I told him that whilst I love his drawings they should only be done on paper, he said sorry and we had a big hug. I dropped Dad a message and picture to let him know what had happened and that me and Ted had already spoken about it.
I’m Glad I didn’t blow up and took my time to think about things, sometimes all we need is a little perspective and patience. Besides, i’d been looking for an excuse to redecorate the bedroom anyway
