Furniture Coloring

A couple of nights ago, I heard N say that somebody had colored all over my living room table.  Then my three year old said, "I did that."  No remorse or anything.  My first response:  get angry and then go clean it.  Then I remembered a story from class about a four year old boy who kicked a hole in the garage wall and how his dad handled it.  So I decided to give it a try.  Remember, this is P's problem, not mine.  I am not the one who colored on the furniture, so I am not the one who has to fix it.

I said, "That's too bad.  What are you going to do about this?"  He didn't know, so I asked him if he wanted a few suggestions.  He did, so I suggested, "You could get all your money and sell your toys, and then we can go to the store and you can buy a new one.  Or you can get a wet washcloth and scrub really really hard until it comes off.  If you need help, you can always pay your mom to help you clean it up."

At first P said, "I'll sell all my toys and buy a new one!"  He ran down the hall to get his toys.  His big brother C thought this was a bad idea, so he ran after him and persuaded him to try another method, reasoning that P would be bored without any toys.  Then I heard P say, "I'll get my eraser and erase it!"  I knew this wouldn't work, as I am too cheap to buy washable crayons.  But I remembered that I am not supposed to tell my child this, but let him figure that out on his own.  So I let him try his idea.  He came running back with a pink eraser and vigorously started trying to erase the marks.  After a minute, he realized it wasn't doing any good.  He was a little upset.  Time to try the next option.  He didn't want to clean alone, so he ran to his room and brought me his piggy bank.  I helped him count out some money, which he gave me in exchange for my help.  We got two rags and started cleaning.  I know he paid me, but I wasn't about to do it all for him for a few coins.  Where's the character building in that?  I made him scrub just as hard as he could the whole time that I helped.  He was tired of it, and I think his arms were a little worn out at the end, but he worked on it until it was all gone.  He was more than a little frustrated by the end, but I know he was glad to see that hard scrubbing at least worked.

After we were done, Mike asked him, "Hey, do you think you might color on something again?"  to which P vehemently responded, "No!  That was too much work!"

Lesson learned:  The more responsibility P has for his choices, the less likely he is to make the same mistake again.  This is becoming almost fun!  I can't wait until my next class tomorrow!