Yesterday was a long day, full of presidency meetings, dance classes, and piano lessons, and I was looking forward to relaxing at my book club that night. However, right before heading out, Lorelai came downstairs and said something that made my blood run cold: "Somebody wrote on the walls."
I presumed it was just a small corner of scribbles. But no. After venturing upstairs, I discovered that some kid had taken it upon themselves to create their own Sistine Chapel-sized mural across most of our upstairs.
Not a pleasant sight to be greeted with. Nathan & I were both furious. In my anger, I cast about for a suspect...and my suspicions initially fell on two of my piano students, who had been at my house (and upstairs) around the time the "incident" took place.
However, these two children (siblings) were old enough (6 & 8) to know better than to do such a thing. So, unfortunately, I began to suspect my own flesh and blood of perpetrating the heinous crime. At first, I thought the pictures on the wall were too high for Celeste to have drawn...however, as I looked more closely, I realized they were, in fact, easily in her reach. And Celeste initially denied having drawn anything, but she wouldn't meet my eyes, or offer specifics, or...do anything but look very suspicious. So I was not pleased. It was after I finally left for book club in a huff that Celeste confessed to Daddy.
At that point, Nathan got angry and scolded Celeste sharply for lying. He told her he appreciated her finally telling the truth ("I thought the walls would look PRETTY"...sigh), but told her the truth had come much too late. He kept her up wiping walls an hour or more past her bedtime. And now, I'm stuck at home with a grounded child, a bunch of Magic Erasers, and a hope that I can clean this all up within the next six months or so.
The second ironic thing is that I am not sure if Celeste's carefree nature is going to respond very well to discipline...in fact, I'm not even sure if the punishment will stick. Celeste's personality is an awful lot like Nathan's...and on his mother, Sandy (Grandma Barrett). They tend to be pretty optimistic people, and things don't keep them upset or discouraged for long. They are good at "forgiving and forgetting." Although this is overall an excellent personality trait to have, I am a little worried about the "forgetting" aspect of it in Celeste's case.
If she "bounces back" from the sorrow of her punishment really quickly, does that mean she's forgotten what she's being punished for? Does she even remember that what she did is wrong? Does she assume that we, too, have completely "gotten over" the thing she did? I really don't know how to properly discipline a child that will be all smiles and hugs five minutes later, while I'm still scrubbing the walls she ruined. I kept her home from her dance class today...I am revoking TV for a couple of days...I am making her help me clean up the walls (as much as she's able, which sadly isn't much). Will that be enough? I just don't know!
Not that it makes it any easier, but one thing I've done is have the child hold the sponge/magic eraser with me while I scrub. That way, they're cleaning (sorta) and it makes more progress than leaving them to it on their own. And having their movements restricted by mom is less fun than just playing with water and sponges.
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