- There is a reason most people (including me) have a designated area in which their children are allowed to do arts and crafts
- When 5-year-olds are doing arts and crafts, it is always a good idea to keep a close eye on them
- If your child is going to go freelance with his arts and crafts, it is best -- both for his physical wellbeing and your desire not to be incarcerated -- if his partner in crime is not related to him.
How did I learn these things, you ask?
Well, while I was trying to put Hannah down for her nap, Joseph and his friend asked if they could paint the flower pot I gave Joe for his birthday.
This flower pot.

They did a beautiful job.
The problem is, when they finished with the flower pot there was still plenty of paint left. And they still wanted to paint something.
Had I been smart and made them wait for me to clean off the dining room table -- the aforementioned designated arts and crafts area -- then I would have heard (if not seen) exactly what was going on.
But, wanting desperately for my cranky toddler to get some sleep and knowing it would be easier for her if the boys were sequestered in Joe's room, I allowed them to paint unattended upstairs.
As I got up from putting Hannah down, they came bouncing proudly out of Joe's room announcing that after they painted the flower pot they had pretended that painting was their job. And that they had painted Joseph's room!
They painted the door:
They painted the floor:
They painted the bed -- the frame, the sheets, and the ladders:
They painted the walls:
And, of course, the ceiling:

Had this been something Joseph had done by himself, I'm pretty sure I would have killed him. Had he been with one of his cousins, there would have surely been yelling. Perhaps even cursing of some sort.
But, for some reason, because his partner in crime was one of his friends, I was totally able to take it in stride.
I didn't even get upset, really.
The first thing I said was, "Well, let's get some sponges; I'm sure it will wash off."
Then I quickly realized that if it were to wash off the walls too easily then I was totally ripped off when I bought the Paint-a-Pot in the first place. "Washable" would be a very bad feature indeed to have in paints that are supposed to be used to decorate a terracotta flower pot, no?
The paint only came off the smoothest of surfaces easily. These pictures are of the paint that wouldn't come off with soap, water and a scrubby sponge. I will definitely hit these remaining spots with the Magic Sponge, but I really hate that it basically just takes off a thin layer of the underlying paint. I'm not sure that will be much better than the offending streaks.
I'm glad I didn't blow up at them. Not because I'm worried about what Joe's friend will tell his mother, but because, while I was helping them clean, I was reminded of the similar things my sister and I did when we were little: painting jacks on the garage floor with nary a thought to using a drop cloth, the graffiti she and a friend drew all over the inside of her closest (snarky comments about classmates, and, I kid you not, something about a "Jolly Green Fart," whatever the hell that was), the huge messes she and I used to make as we concocted "potions" from cooking ingredients and my mothers cosmetics, toiletries and perfumes...
By not blowing up, I was able to remember that these were things we did, not to be bad, but for the sheer joy of doing them. Joseph and his friend seemed to be truly proud of their "mess." It had been a creative, imaginative game to them. They didn't try to hide it. And they didn't complain about having to clean it up or even give me a hard time when I told them they were done with handicrafts for the day.
They just moved seamlessly from the cleanup of their mess to, "Hey, let's go play dress-up!"
And off they went to wreak more havoc in the well supervised sun room.