To veto DD's choice of decor

[ChewChewsBiscuitTin]

DD is 4 and we're currently decorating her bedroom. She helped chose the colour and the wallpaper and is pretty on board and excited about it being done.

I had the bright idea that she could chose a couple of pictures to go in the wall so she had something that was entirely her choice. Anyway, the ones she has chosen are (in my opinion) awful, they also (objectively) don't go with anything else in the room.

Do I override her choice in the interests of taste or do I get over myself and let a 4 year old have what she wants in her own bedroom as nobody is going to see it anyway ?

Obviously I have attached pictures so you can make a reasoned assessment.

YABU - it's her room, stop being a bell end and let her have them

YANBU - they are awful, intervention is required

(This thread is intended as a little light humour, I will probably get the posters despite my better judgement)

I think it's Marvelous 😃

When my brother was little my parents painted a chalkboard on his wall. He spent years drawing on it without issues. When he got older someone bought him some proper darts (it was the 70s!). He drew a dartboard and managed to damage the whole section of plaster. So it could be worse op! 😂

You gave her the choice so you should go with it if you let her make the decision on personalisation.
It's always better to select things that suit and then give them the choice of perhaps five options.
You could always find another picture that might appeal to change it in the future, kids change their minds for the next fad or phase regularly anyway.

I chose to have my whole bedroom covered in Barbie wallpaper at that age. Loved it for a few years, then was ambivalent about it for a few more, until I'd fully outgrown it and my parents let me change it when I was about 10 or 11.

The text is horrendous /tacky
But you said she could choose
Whatever website did you find these for her to choose from...

anyways...Always a good idea letting a 4yo making decorations decisions...Not

Ah, sorry, I got confused.

When the poster said 'they like pink' I assumed the 'they' referred to multiple 4 year old girls, rather than then TQIAWTF+ way that we are supposed to use 'they' nowadays where it refers to one person.

This is brilliant

I painted a mural on my sons wall when he was 4. It was a picture of a pond with ducks on from his favourite storybook. It measures about 2.5ft square.

The room has been decorated many times since then, he is now 23 and the picture is still there, he will not allow it to be painted over! In hindsight I should have painted it on board.

Let her choose the pictures

I assumed the 'they' referred to multiple 4 year old girls, rather than then TQIAWTF+ way that we are supposed to use 'they' nowadays where it refers to one person for goodness sake, it's perfe tly fine to use they to refer to an individual without it being about gender identity.

That was me with my first DD. I really wanted her to get the message of "you can be anyone you want" and read her lots of books about female role models around the world. I personally hate all the gendered pink, fluffy sparkly stuff and my DD could sense my disappointment when she picked that stuff. One day some male work colleague advised when she was about two years old: you have to let her be anyone she wants and that includes a girl who likes being dressed in pink sparkly stuff, play with dolls and kitchens.
That convinced me and let her be the way she wanted to be. She is 13 now and she has changed, its more "girly" than me but also look up to great female role models and is fairly independent (what I wanted!).
Let them be even if they like tacky and pink.

I thought this thread was going to say something like DD has asked for neon green paint on the walls or something like that. A couple of pictures you can take down, meh. But as a lesson for next time, when giving a small child a choice, edit their choices down to only ones you're happy with!

I told my teen son he could have any colour of paint on his walls except black.
He took this as a challenge to go for the darkest brown he could find.
It's his room, so I let him do it, and in a way it made the room seem larger (because the side furthest from the window gets no light at all and you imagine an infinitely deep dark cave )

Google mural wallpaper rainbow there's some lovely choices

I'd definitely go with it. Then again, I'd think myself lucky with pictures, after a lifetime of refusing to concede awful paint colours which I'd have to paint over on my own some years later.

You’re not alone, I thought too she was talking about little girls in general

I tried the shortlist of choices thing with paint chips when my daughter was 5. Here are a range of shades of pale pink - she chose the Barbiest colour. We didn't like it, she loved it, we painted it.

To her credit, even when she grew out of it she said nothing. She soldiered on until we suggested sorting out (way too much stuff!) and in return, we would re-paint something that was more teenage-appropriate. She jumped at the chance and was ruthless.

The lessons she learned from age 5 were:

1. Parents will live their promises to her, even if we would rather she chose something else
2. Children will stand by their choices and try to avoid being fickle.

This time around, the colours are much more subtle and will be acceptable as a spare room eventually. In return, she's much better at keeping it reasonably tidy and under control.

By the way, I like the unicorn and the crown better than the giraffe and the shark. Just goes to show how different we all are.

When mine were younger Ikea sold hinged A4 picture frames. I've got them up the stairs and they have some in their rooms. The ones on the stairs are stuffed with certificates and awards letters (they hold quite a few) the ones in their rooms were things they were into at that phase. They have tended to put what ever the latest print is ontop of the old one so now I can nostalgically go back through the pictures/ certificates.

Our pictures were home printed or child created so I'm not sure if the sort you're looking at buying would go in a similar style of frame.

This is similar but a bit more than we paid way back when eBay link to hinged picture frame

My nieces parents split up and her father said she could decorate her bedroom at his new house but then his new woman said no, it broke her heart. To this day it still strikes a cord in her. Don't go back on your word

I just showed the pictures to my 4 and 5 year old girls.

It seems they both share your daughter's taste in tacky wall art OP

They are tacky as fuck but she’s 4, and it’s only a couple of pictures which can be easily removed when her tastes change. Even if her tastes don’t change, it’s her bedroom, not a hill worth dying on.

Give the Queen her Unicorn 🤣🦄

YABU

its only pictures, you can swap them out very easily when she changes her mind. But it would be mean to not use them after encouraging her to pick herself!

Shes 4, thyre perfect for her

My DD was the same aged 4. Now aged 8 she has a super cool pixie cut, a pet tarantula and is obsessed with skateboarding and Minecraft. She sometimes gets mistaken for a boy and defiantly tells people that there is NO SUCH THING as boy/girl hair and clothes. Your DD can embrace pink & sparkles and still be absolutely kick ass, just keep encouraging her to be herself!

The giraffe riding a shark is awful.
The unicorn is fine.
If she likes crowns I'd look for another print with a crown on it and without a silly caption.

The key to giving 4 year olds a choice is giving them a curated selection to choose from!