When Your Toddler Takes A Pen To YOur Favorite Chair…
Tell yourself repeatedly to calm down and take deep breaths. Get Dawn dish soap on a wet rag right away. (Shout would have worked too, but I didn’t have any at the time.) Take deep breaths and calmly put the child in time out while you scrub like crazy on your chair.
Relax when it all comes out and it actually looks cleaner than it did before.
Revisit child in time out and calmly explain that pens are for paper only while they cry and tell you sorry over and over. (She could tell I was very upset; maybe it was because I started crying as soon as I saw the damage.)
Put a “no pens for Molly until your 13″ rule in place to further protect your home from damage.
All is well.
