Urgent advice on how to discipline 2 year DD?

[Hannispan]

My DD1 goes to bed and 'reads'/plays with quiet toys for 10-15 mins while i feed dd2 and put her to bed. Normally i feed in DD1s room but tonight i fed in my room as DD1 wouldn't leave DD2 alone. Popped back to DD1 to find she had scribbled on the walls then fallen asleep. By morning she's going to have forgotten what she did so how to I approach this with her? I need her to know its naughty! Also any tips on getting felt pen off walls? thanks

If she's 2 then there's not really much you can do in the way of punishment now, she really won't connect it with the drawing at all.

What I would do is remove the pens from her bedroom - if she is drawing on walls when unsupervised then she should only have the pens under supervision for now.

Secondly I'd point out the pen on the wall tomorrow and say "Oh no! There's pen on the wall. That's not right, pens are for drawing on paper." Don't say "DD did you do this?" or "You drew on the wall" or in any way imply that it was her - treat it as though the pen has appeared by magic and it's a problem you'd like to avoid in the future, rather than an OMG TERRIBLE THING that she has done - if it's the first time she's done it then it's likely to be experimentation and the more you react the more control you are giving her. So keeping it neutral and just disappointed rather than angry is best, especially for something like this when you're dealing with it in retrospect. Hopefully she will take the message that you don't want pen on the wall, without feeling defensive or shamed that you've told her off about it. And it has the bonus that it works the same whether or not she remembers that it was her.

Try baby wipes for removal - do it with her if you like, not as a punishment though, just as a general let's help mummy clean up kind of thing.

Shamed was the wrong word there - I mean if she remembers that it was her then she will probably feel ashamed anyway. I just mean if she really can't remember then she won't feel it's so unfair, if that makes sense (I can't think of a better way to word it)

You could ask her in the morning but I doubt she'll remember.....or want to admit it! We found some pen marks on our hall wall so I asked ds (2.5) who had done it,apparently it was 'the big bad wolfs mummy,she did it!' Not the most convincing lie!

My DD has done this with crayon and felt tip so you have my sympathies. If it's washable felt tip it should wash off quite easily with a wet cloth. None washable ones are harder to get off, but it's worth a try. I've found crayon more difficult and we still have a nice red scribble on the wall in the dining room at toddler height.

I would ask her about it in the morning and tell her "we don't draw on the walls in the house we only draw on paper" or something - therefore letting her know the rules without blaming her (as she probably didn't know it's wrong). Keep all felt tips, crayon, chalk in a place where she can't reach and just get it out for supervised use until she's a bit older.

The rule is no art materials or food in bedrooms in this house

Toothpaste gets a lot of stuff off of the walls...

Use those magic sponge remover things, the ones I have are from JML and they are white and pink and stuff really does come off like magic, great for shoes, marks on walls etc.

I agree with everyone that it is a rare child who has access in their room to pens and doesn't use them on an unsuitable surface. My daughter managed to cover twenty items (yes, twenty) with marker in one sweep of the room whilst I was busy with her baby sister, including soft furnishings, furniture, and so on, she must have run round holding the marker out and swiping everything! Lesson learnt, but both mine have drawn on walls, and I second the sensitive advice given above on how to handle it.

I do make them clear up, but that isn't a punishment really at this age, they find it quite fun, unfortunately!