Remember reading this post here? No? Well, just to refresh your memory. It was bed time and the children were all in their room gearing down for sleep. In fact it was very late and all they were meant to do was go to sleep. I wandered down to check on them to discover a certain child rubbing his blanket on pink wet paint all over the wall. I could hardly believe it. Not wanting to Over-re-act and thus do more damage then good I decided the matter belonged to the Papa.
All he said was 'make him clean it up tomorrow' and they had some special time (briefly) before being sent back to bed.
Well. The. Very. Next. Day. This particular child expressed his heart. I was informed he wanted his bedroom wall painted so that it LOOKED PRETTY. In fact we've had this discussion several times already. Let's face it. In our cheap rental the walls are a neutral and unflattering dull yellow (my least fave colour in the world).
Knowing what I then knew I was super duper glad that I 1). Handed the matter over to someone else & 2). that no disciplinary measures where taken. Why? BECAUSE. Although the PHYSICAL ACTION was 'naughty' the INWARD ACTION was not.
I guess the experience has made me consider what is actually classed as being 'naughty'? Is it something that is inconvenient to us? something that wastes our resources (time, money, energy, etc)?
No wonders they say 'kids will be kids' or 'boys will be boys'. Natural learning, exploring, cause and effect. They are just being in the development stage they are in and learning about the world in which we live.
You don't read that kind of 'parenting advice' in the parenting books.
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