Yesterday, I walked into the family room and screamed in horror. Truly I did, because the white ottoman that accompanies our cool white big chair had been covered in purple and orange magic marker.
Purple and Orange Permanent Sharpie markers.
My scream was loud, unexpected and straight from deep in my soul. It was my worst-nightmare-come true-kind of scream.
My 2 year old, sitting in front of his creation in the big chair, after 6 seconds of staring at his screaming mother who was staring at the marked up ottoman, face stretched in horror, screamed himself then cried.
He saw my horror. Heard my scream and understood. Coloring the furniture with markers - a HUGE, HUGE "no-no".
Not a lesson I was teaching on purpose because I was too wrapped up in my defaced white ottoman.
After my 30 second scream, I was reduced to a cough, a slight gag, and then nothing.
In shock, I had no words. None. Posted this fact to Facebook even. I was rendered speechless.
"No, no writing on the furniture, Owen," was all I could choke out as I wrenched off the ottoman cover. And then I was silent, speechless as I thought of my ottoman cover destroyed and my new mission to get in the wash as soon as possible in hopes of saving it and getting it back to it's beautiful whiteness.
My lesson.
You'd think it was not to have white furniture in a house of boys under 8 - as a few of my FB friends were quick to point out was the flaw.
No. That wasn't it. Even though it's a pretty logical foregone conclusion.
No, my lesson:
To never stop looking at things from a child's perspective.
How true.
Instead of looking at that marked on ottoman cover that was a part of my cool looking furniture as destroyed, I could look at it as a creative piece of art that came from my 2 year old's imagination.
At the end of the day, thanks to several more of my FB friends who saw the brighter, creative side of things as well as the kid perspective of things - I caught that vision.
That perspective.
That ottoman cover, in my mind, is now a work of art. I am so glad that the marker didn't wash off. The 2 year old's creation, though a little faded, is still preserved.
And honestly, the white fabric ottoman cover made for a great canvas.
So that white fabric ottoman cover becomes a cool "art" pillow (stuffed with giant pillows) that my 2 year old can keep for years to come and possibly Mama will hang it on his college dorm room wall - as one friend suggested. Hee. :-))
It also becomes a reminder of my 2 year old's childhood days that are going by ever so swiftly. He starts preschool in August - yikes!
And most importantly the white fabric ottoman cover becomes a cool reminder to me to remember to never stop looking at the world through kid-colored sunglasses - to never lose that perspective, ever.
It's a creative, fun, imagination-filled, colorful, daring-drenched perspective of the world.
One that is too precious to lose.
And we lose it often as adults.
A very cool, precious lesson, that I aim to never to forget.
Parents, what lessons have you learned from your kiddos' "no-no's"?
