After dinner last night the big girls were supposed to get started on their chores, my husband was on the computer, and I was doing some picking up around the house. I would say that my son had about five minutes where someone didn't have their eyes right on him and you'll never believe what he did.
I actually wish I took a picture of it, but I didn't. He managed to open a paint can, pour some of it into a tray, and paint his floor, window, and the back of a desk we are getting rid of blue! Yeah, I know exactly why I didn't get that picture. Who would stop to take a picture when you need to get that cleaned up before it dries?
My husband and I worked hard and fast!
We had to get that paint up off the floor and we had to do it right away. My son was placed in the corner to keep him out of our hair and of course as a punishment for his naughty behavior. My middle daughter was in charge of keeping the baby out of our hair and our oldest was our gopher and chaser of the cat. With some Goo Gone and a little disinfectant spray and a whole lot of fumes we got the floor cleaned up and the window. The back of the desk could not be cleaned, but thankfully it was the back and goes against a wall. We got the paint and the paint supplies out of his room and then we asked questions.
Why did you paint your floor blue?
I wanted my floor to be blue just like my walls. Okay, no maliciousness on his part. Not that I thought there was. He's curious. We had allowed him to paint with us the day before. And we left the paint in his new room. It was just too much of a temptation even if he only thought he was helping us.
We were understandably still upset. And this will be a story that goes down in history with us like the time his oldest sister colored on a wall of a house that we were moving out of with permanent magic marker. We tell that story frequently and it's something we can laugh at now. And this is something that now that we got the paint up off the floor that we can laugh about.
I began thinking last night...
After all of this happened I couldn't help but think about my Cyberstalking: Parents who Bully their Kids post. This would have been one of those times that it would have been really easy to express my anger and frustration with my son on the internet. And well, I did share what happened on the internet. Merely a lesson learned don't leave paint where a 4 year old can get it. We all learned a lesson from this, but it's not hard to say he should know better and not do that. It was all relatively innocent on his part though and just not something I can ever say was malicious or done to torment me in some way or was even done because he's anything but a curious four year old.
I gave a lot of thought to what I would say about this. This is parenting. It's messy, it's wild, it's filled with challenges, but it's also the most rewarding thing I have ever done in my life. We are creating memories and I'm glad even during the trying times I can find a reason to smile and laugh about it.
What has your child done recently that had you seeing red in the moment, but made you laugh about it later?
