to say no to painting.....

[ilovespinach]

I know a little trivial compared to other posts but I am feeling down and just wanted to know what other folks would do....

poorly todder wants to do painting...he picks the moment his poorly baby brother wakes up from his nap (too early) to ask....baby wants to be carried around all the time...was it unreasonable for me to say no to painting...

feel like I have put the baby first....

really struggling to be a mommy to 2

did offer to read a book or do stickers with ds1 (sitting on the sofa with one either side) but he wouldn't have it....

They always always want to do painting at the worst possible moment!! Don't feel bad - I have certainly refused painting on numerous occassions. A tip - get some of those 'magic' painting books (the ones where they change colour with just a wet paint brush) - the damage limitation is fantastic!

have you offered a pritt stick and lentles.. it will keep him busy for hours!!! and it's sort of messy..

pritt stick and lentils...not heard of that one before.....great idea!!!!

send him outside with a paintbrush and a pot of water and watch him paint the patio...
Sympathies. I hated doing painting with a passion and messy play was one reason I kept the dc in nursery 2 mornings a week even when I gave up work.

What i hate about painting is that they wander off after 5 minutes and then it's all the faffing cleaning up and washing brushes

If she would stick at it for half an hour it would be worth it.

agree with putting them outside, make them a bin bag overall and let loose.

Agree with the painting the patio but if you don't have an outside (we don't!) - an aquadraw mat and a paintbrush with water works well.

Or we do lots of 'sticking' here (glue in yoghurt pot, spoon as spreader, big box of crap sparkly sweet wrappers, tissue paper, torn up wrapping paper). Slightly less messy.

I say no to painting frequently, well, I say 'yes, maybe later...' so YANBU

We very rarely paint, it is such a lot of mess and they lose interest so fast (well, DD does not, she would paint for hours)

Aquadoodle is good, as is Etchasketch (remember them)

oops pressed post message too soon

YANBU, and I hope that your lo is better soon

water painting rules!!! - an hour and a half last time...(aged 16 months and 3years) painted shed/side of house/flowers/grass everything.

thanks for all the replies....

we live in a flat so I can't send him outside...could be an aquadraw for xmas

Ikwym about painting being messy.

But one way I found to limit the chaos was not to use squeezy out paint (save that for pre-school or toddler group) but a box of hard watercolours. It's much much less messy. Lidl's often sell v cheap nice boxes of watercolours.