18mo writing on the walls

[mambera]

Yes, I know, she has no impulse control at this stage.  But I am so very tired of having to scrub crayon off the wall every night when I come home from work.  And I dread the repainting fees we will owe when we move out of this apartment in the near future. 

She is home with my ILs during the day and they don't much bother trying to discourage this behavior, they just kind of think it's cute I guess.

Right now when I see her about to do it, I say, "Where do we write?"  Typically she will point at her pad of paper and then go ahead and scribble all over the wall (floor, cabinet, refrigerator).  I will then say, "We write on the paper, not on the wall.  Give me the crayon now."  She will then dance around and throw a tantrum but ultimately will usually hand over the crayon, if she doesn't I take it from her.  She then 'helps' me scrub the crayon off the wall.  We can easily repeat the whole sequence again ten minutes later.

I guess I could never allow her to have crayons at all but that seems draconian, drawing is her main source of entertainment right now.

Is there anything else I can do besides wait for her to grow out of it?

[cyclamen]

Originally Posted by mambera 
She is home with my ILs during the day and they don't much bother trying to discourage this behavior, they just kind of think it's cute I guess.

Aww.... sounds a bit frustrating.

Could you hang up butcher paper on the walls and encourage her to only draw on that?  Or get washable crayons/color wonder?  Tho if she is drawing on your walls during the day and your ILs don't stop her I'm not sure what else there is to do...?

[oaktreemama]

I would remove the crayons. I the IL's won't do anything (what's up with that!!) then I would put them away while you are not home.

Although gosh I think it is awfully disrespectful of them to allow writing on your walls and frankly think they need Gentle Discipline lessons and not your toddler!!

[nextcommercial]

By saying "we don't write on the walls", but leaving the crayons out for her you are really saying,  "I don't mean what I'm saying, feel free to write on the walls".  In a few months, it will mean "Just don't do it right in front of me, sneak off and write on the tile grout instead".

Just put the crayons away, and only have them out when you can supervise.  (VERY hard to completely supervise, so it will still happen occasionally)

You could also give her a large chalkboard wall, and some chalk.  Then, paint over the wall when you leave.  You could buy a corner shaped easel and give her markers and large sheets of paper. (you still have to watch over her like a hawk because she will just walk off and draw on something else.) 

She's old enough to use tempra paint on boxes, or large sheets of paper.  Rolled paper is inexpensive, easy to find, and gives her a lot of surface to draw on. 

Bathtub crayons are fun at this age.

You do need to take these away when she's done though, or she'll have the whole apartment redecorated in less than five minutes.

[nextcommercial]

If you have an arcadia door, she can use window markers.

http://www.amazon.com/Crayola-Washable-Window-FX-Markers/dp/B001E6EZXW

[Anastasiya]

Take away the crayons.
Super simple.

She can have them when you are home to supervise.

[One_Girl]

I only let my dd draw while she was supervised and sitting in the highchair at that age and I sat with her while she colored or used scissors until she was four and really had the impulse control necessary to not draw on the walls.  I made it very clear that one incident would bring us right back to the me keeping the drawing things up unless I was available to supervise.  I don't think your only options are to either allow free range drawing or to allow no drawing, there are developmentally appropriate ways to meet her need for creativity without putting your walls and furniture at risk. 

[Lilygoose]

My DD is a wall drawer also.  We give her washable crayons-they really do wipe of most surfaces fairly easily- and we try to provide good supervision when she's drawing.  If she does color on the wall, floor, furniture, appliances, etc. we tell her that she only colors on paper.  A second time results in the crayons being taken away and the coloring session ending.  At 26 months she's gotten much better about this and we have loosened our supervision somewhat with pretty good success. 

[omamasmama]

we went through that and I just ended up taking all coloring things away for a while and would periodically try them to see how it'd go. Just removing them was easier than battling it out and often dd knew she could write on other things as a way of getting attention.

we did try those crayola markers that only show up on specific crayola paper and that helped too because it was not satisfying for her when she couldn't see anything show up on all the furniture!

[nextcommercial]

Originally Posted by omamasmama 

we did try those crayola markers that only show up on specific crayola paper and that helped too because it was not satisfying for her when she couldn't see anything show up on all the furniture!

LOL.. I don't understand that.

[kiara7]

Washable crayons and markers!!!

That's all we have around here. Ds loves to draw on himself and walls. I only bought washable Crayola products from the beginning. They wipe off easily with a damp towel. No problems and kids get to still have fun.

[Bokonon]

We're going through that too, but the Mr. Clean Miracle Eraser is amazing on crayon marks!  I always try to redirect DD to the paper on the easel, but don't worry so much if she *does* get crayon on the walls, because I know it will come off!

[omamasmama]

Originally Posted by nextcommercial 

Originally Posted by omamasmama 

we did try those crayola markers that only show up on specific crayola paper and that helped too because it was not satisfying for her when she couldn't see anything show up on all the furniture!

LOL.. I don't understand that.

these are the markers. they only show up on the color wonder paper and not the walls, clothes, her, etc. so she got over trying to color on anything other than paper since she couldn't see anything show up elsewhere.

http://www.amazon.com/Crayola-Color-Wonder-Mini-Markers/dp/B002L3TS5M/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1291812434&sr=8-8

[mamazee]

She isn't old enough to understand that it's OK to color some places but not others.  Just put them up and get them down for her when you can watch her, and since she really likes to color, make sure to find time to watch her color frequently.  It isn't punishment to only let her use something when it can be used safely and practically.

[nextcommercial]

Originally Posted by omamasmama 

Originally Posted by nextcommercial 

Originally Posted by omamasmama 

we did try those crayola markers that only show up on specific crayola paper and that helped too because it was not satisfying for her when she couldn't see anything show up on all the furniture!

LOL.. I don't understand that.

these are the markers. they only show up on the color wonder paper and not the walls, clothes, her, etc. so she got over trying to color on anything other than paper since she couldn't see anything show up elsewhere.

http://www.amazon.com/Crayola-Color-Wonder-Mini-Markers/dp/B002L3TS5M/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1291812434&sr=8-8

No.. I "understood that" sorry, I was jokingly saying "I can't understand why she wouldn't be satisfied with markers that don't show up on the walls".  

[GuildJenn]

Take the crayons away from her and the in-laws. :)

[Anastasiya]

Originally Posted by Bokonon 

We're going through that too, but the Mr. Clean Miracle Eraser is amazing on crayon marks!  I always try to redirect DD to the paper on the easel, but don't worry so much if she *does* get crayon on the walls, because I know it will come off!

Just be careful with that eraser. We found out the hard way that it's really a super fine grit sandpaper, and it took the shiny finish off our painted walls, our door frames, our varnished wood furniture and our laminate kitchen counter tops!

[Madalyn]

From one 18 month old mom to another, your daughter and my son should get together. 

We have the same process repeat no matter how many times his crayons get taken away.

[Melanie_7773]

Originally Posted by Anastasiya 





Just be careful with that eraser. We found out the hard way that it's really a super fine grit sandpaper, and it took the shiny finish off our painted walls, our door frames, our varnished wood furniture and our laminate kitchen counter tops!

I agree.  I have one in the house, and there are some jobs that call for it.  But I use it very judiciously.  Definitely it is not a tool for widespread and frequent cleaning of walls or finished floors.

[LaughingHyena]

The only solution I have found is that crayons can only be used when I am right there in the room. Even with my 4yo we still have times where we go back to this. I don't know how you get the ILs on board though, I suspect that may be your bigger problem.

When they were younger my kids liked the aquadraw mat. Nice and big and because the "pens" are only filled with water very little mess.