The Stamping of the Walls

On the Thursday before Christmas, Justin decided to redecorate his room. I was in the office searching (and digging) for a receipt I needed. With the dog by my side, I instructed Justin to go play in his room. Now, Justin has played in his room several times before without incident. However, that was about to change. About 10 minutes pass and I hear my husband come home (and I'm still searching for the receipt). As soon as he walks in the door, I hear in the most stern yelling voice, "JUSTIN!!!!" I got up, ran into the living room and saw what had been done. Shaking my head in disbelief, I looked over to my son and said the all-famous words of a parent "Did you do this?" "Yyyyyyyes," he said, as he started to sob, eyes welling up with tears. This boy knew what he had done was really, really bad. This devilish child thought it would be fun to take a red stamp (like the kind teachers use on grading papers) and run it along the carpet, in the living room and down the hallway. Most appropriately, this was a frowny :-( face, not a smiley face stamp. Not only did he have to make a trail map through my house, but apparently, he thought the walls in his room needed a make-over too.

Now, this is not just any ordinary kids room. My husband and I paid a lot of money to a local artist to paint a mural of the solar system on his walls. We knew that having a child that there might be some destruction of this mural, but we took a chance. It's a really cool mural! But the stamping didn't stop at the walls, either. The furniture and ceiling got the mark of evil too. He got up on top of his bunk bed to reach the ceiling and his fan....the little stinker!

So, in my panic-stricken mood, I frantically tried getting the stamps off. I grabbed the Magic Eraser and, without thinking, climbed atop of the bunk bed to reach the stamps on the ceiling. Little did I forget about the weight requirement for the top bunk! Not but 20 seconds passed by after I got on top, that I fell through the bunk bed. Yes, I broke it...permanently. At that point, both Justin and I were crying!


His punishment for this little deed was to write a letter to Santa Claus. With it being only 1 week until Christmas, I took advantage of the "time of year" to teach him a lesson on being good!

His apology letter read:

Dear Santa,
I am sorry for stamping the floor, ceiling, walls, furniture and my fan. I am very, very, very sorry for that. I hope I don't get coal in my stocking now.
Love, Justin

Mr. and Mrs. Claus pondered about what to do next. Coal or presents? And at the last minute, they decided to go ahead and keep this boy on Santa's "Good List" this year. However, he is keeping a very watchful eye on this creative child!

So the morals of the story are:

1. Check your child(s) backpack as soon as they get home. You never know what they might have brought home (like stamps from the teacher's desk)!
2. As comfortable as you may feel about your 8 year old child playing alone in his/her room, check on him/her more than every 5-10 minutes.
3. Never pay more than you are willing to lose to decorate your house.
4. Don't waste time using a Magic Eraser on any kind of ink stain. It doesn't work.
5. And lastly, if you're over 75lbs, do not climb on top of a bunk bed.