Parenting Fail #3,762

Collin was disgruntled that I stopped a movie he was watching, while in progress yesterday. I have managed, in the nearly four years (gasp!) of his life, to stick to the minimal T.V. rule and yesterday, as he was watching a movie that he'd never seen before, I started asking him questions, like, "who is that character?" and "what are they doing?" He couldn't answer me. Not because he wasn't able to peel his eyes away, but because he was so zoned into the movie that it was just flashing pictures to him and he was a zombie. They might as well have been anything. If you are watching a movie and can't even name one character, it's time to turn it off according to the mantra of Mama. Thus, he was mad; so mad in fact that he took it upon himself to instantly rebel.

Three to five seconds after I turned the movie off, I heard the playroom door slam and then re open with the announcement, "I wrote on the door. And, I did it ON PURPOSE!" So, little boy, you got your revenge. So you think. Your cowboy pen that Granny got you, that was so special? Yep, it's gone. Sorry. Sorry Granny too. Poor pen. We just don't do things like write on our house. And we certainly don't do it as revenge. And, the best part of this whole scenario is I set him up with a bucket and water to clean the mess up and told him he couldn't play until every bit was cleaned off. I probably should've realized that soapy water would've been a party too him. I just hope he doesn't color on more walls as an incentive to get to scrub again. Punishment: backfire. He scrubbed all the shoe scuffs, everything. Oh well. You win some, you lose some.