To just paint my DCs room?

[FeelingOblivion]

Last Christmas, part of our two DCs Christmas present was having their bedrooms re-painted (they were plain white as we live in a new build) and some wall stickers/decorations/bedding to go with their new room colour/s. We gave them a home made voucher each for this.

My DC1 (6 at the time now 7) hasn't been able to decide what colour they want.
DC2 (4) chose two colours on first visit to Homebase, no bother, room painted a couple of weeks later...

Roll on months later and DC1 still hasn't decided.

Full disclaimer: We had a bit of a disagreement over colours initially. All DC1 said they wanted was dark red and black... which I vetoed as the room is smallish small, not overly bright anyway and I honestly think it would look dreadful and very claustrophobic. I was obviously nice about this and explained kindly why I didn't think it was the best idea. We then agreed a compromise which involved red and black on one "feature" wall and a lighter colour on remaining walls... but when we went to buy the paint (a couple of weeks later due to other commitments) DC1 announced they had changed their mind and has still to decide what colours they want.

DC1 is pretty indecisive (another example they can't decide what they want to dress as for Halloween) so has form for this.

DH has said it's getting ridiculous and that we should just pick some colours ourselves and paint it now.

I've got three nice complimentary colour swatches in front of me, that tie in with one of DC1s current interests (Zelda). DH has said we should just order the paint and do it, which I kind of agree with.

But there's a little voice in the back of my head that is nagging saying we should let DC1 decide, or perhaps just leave their room as it currently is (if they can't decide). I would hate to paint it and for DC1 to then be upset/not like it.

So would we be unreasonable to just paint the bloody room?

(As an aside, any tips for helping with indecisiveness in children would be appreciated!!)

I agree op sorry, you shouldn’t have offered it up if you were not willing to let them decide, or it had a clause of you’d paint it but only if you like the colours. Now you’re deciding to paint it for them.

just say to the child, we are going to paint your room on x date. Pick the colour and if you want all red and black we will do that, it is your Xmas gift and sorry we didn’t do what you asked as we said we would first time.

They did make a decision the OP just didn't like it..

6&4 and a room painted a gift? that's hardly a present.

I’d have to agree, when it’s the parents who clearly want it decorated and to their tastes. It’s like saying your crimbo present is we are going to paint your room which we were going to do anyway. Or your birthday present is dinner, which you’d habe had anyway, but you can chose what it is, as long as it’s something I want to eat.

This is why I'd never say that the children can choose colours, because I know they would choose bright red and that would be hideous.

However, you said that their Christmas present was that they could choose the colour.

They chose.

And you then vetoed it.

So they aren't getting what they want and therefore aren't bothered.

Yeah, OP what kind of gaslighting is that?

They're not at all indecisive. They've decided and you've vetoed.

Poor kid. The whole point of the gift is that they get to choose. Let them paint the Red Chamber of Doom and they can paint over when they're older.

@FeelingOblivion This is what I did when they were little, chose some duvet covers that I thought they would like, showed them this whittled down choice of maybe 3 so not too many as to be overwhelming. Once they picked it you can then pull colours from that duvet cover for their room. There are a million stickers you can put on their walls and as has been mentioned if you use lining paper the whole thing comes back off if it is a very dark colour. There are also mural wallpapers too. Or just accept you will need to put at least 3 coats of white over anything super dark in the future.

If they didn't like the original choices I would whittle down some more choices for them. At one stage Ds had a navy blue duvet cover with a lime green dinosaur skeleton on it and his room was painted in a matching lime green paint. He had navy blue curtains, a navy rug and other navy bits. Children find it hard to visualise and Pinterest is good for showing them different room scapes.

Mine have had multicoloured striped walls (frog tape is amazing) and chevron walls. But always based around a duvet cover as a starting point. It is their room and they can have it how they want it as it is the only room in the house they get a say on decorating wise.

Absolutely this^
why on earth you’ve asked DC for an opinion if you didn’t want to follow it?

They did choose and you vetoed. If it was their present they should get what the want. Even though I agree with you that red and black sounds awful