Every mom who has gotten through the baby stage knows there’s nothing quite like a toddler. They’re so cute, but anyone who has spent more than a day with them can tell you how fast they are. You turn your head for even a second, and they will get into trouble. One mom learned just that when her toddler colored all over her white couch.
She is definitely not the first mom whose toddler has drawn on furniture. But people were shocked by how calmly the mom reacted. Instead of losing it on her child, she handled it without letting him think he was off the hook.
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‘The unthinkable happened.’
Mom Grace Kaage posted a video of her son Christian on her Instagram showing off his handiwork. The 2-year-old admits “I colored,” before showing her just what he had done. It wasn’t just a little coloring, the toddler colored all over the white couch and chair, as well as a wooden table, and his sister’s toy, with a red marker.
“This, and this, and this,” he says, holding his mom’s hand and leading her around the living room.
“I didn’t even see that you colored the table,” Kaage replied, clearly in shock.
She couldn’t have anticipated everywhere her toddler had colored.
“I may never recover. Of all colors…red. RED!?” she wrote in the post’s caption. “Tackling this today as a family after ordering a year’s worth of cleaning supplies. This will be a tough one, even for me. Send prayers (and cleaning hacks) please TYSM Xo,” she finished.
“Christian, are you supposed to?” she asked, to which the little boy replied “yeah” before she quickly replied “no.”
The video later cuts to the toddler sitting on a chair. “Where do you color?” she asks. “Only in a book,” the little one replied. She then asked if he was sorry, and he said yes before asking if he could get up. Unfortunately for little Christian, he still had to finish his time out. “I love you,” they both said.
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People praised her for being level-headed in the moment.
While the comment section is always a mix, there were people praising Kaage for the way she handled the situation.
“Love him ❤️🤣 mum does a good job not losing it but firmly letting him know he mustn’t do this. Lol,” one person wrote.
“You are a great parent,” another person wrote. “The ‘I love you’ at the end.”
“As a mom of four children that came along in three years, I am impressed with how calmly this mom handles this,” another comment reads. “One thing I learned as a mom is that nothing prepares you for the possibilities of what can happen. The only thing that you can completely control is yourself, and this mom did that admirably.”
She shared a few updates.
In a follow-up video, Kaage opened up about what happened, and how she and her family were planning to clean up the whole mess.
“I laughed and cried with all the parents who responded with stories of their own — green markers on couches, black sharpies on cream leather, scissors taken to window treatments and so, so many more,” she wrote in the post’s caption.
“To the parents out there with beautiful, creative babies like mine — life happens! We’re all doing our best.”
Yes, they did get off all the marker the toddler colored.
In a final update, Kaage revealed that with a lot of hard work and cleaning products, they got “every last drop” of red marker off the couch.
“So, so, so many of you were supportive and kind. Tons of you shared contacts, tips, tricks and stories of your own. THANK YOU! I love my IG community here and I so appreciate that so many of you trusted me enough to share with me, too. You’re amazing,” she wrote.
“Some of you said you shouldn’t have white furniture with kids. Others said you should monitor your kids more closely than I already do. I googled ‘can I Velcro my child to my body?’ Turns out you can’t. Sorry to disappoint.”
All in all, it looks like both mom and Christian learned a lesson.
