Carpet Destruction

I cannot believe what Arielle did. All I did was leave the room for a couple of minutes. I walked back in the living room to see Arielle sitting on the floor on front of the couch. She looked at me and said, "Look, Mommy! I drew a big picture!"

Yes, she had. All over the carpet.

Needless to say, I did not respond with the delight she anticipated.

Since she refused to tell me what she had drawn with (fearing the confiscation of her pen/crayon/pencil/whatever, I think) I sent her to her room, with instructions not to come out until she told me what she'd used, so that I could clean it up.

Wow, that was successful. There was much crying, but no 'fessing up.

Well, I could tell that it wasn't ink, which left either crayon, pencil or colored pencil. I checked out the Crayola site, which was less than helpful. Their directions started with "Scrape excess colored pencil off with a dull-edge knife or metal spoon."

Yes, but I'm not trying to get out melted lumps, I'm trying to clean up a DRAWING!

Everywhere I went said pretty much the same thing, unless they were talking about walls, in which case they all recommended Mr. Clean Magic Eraser (my first choice too, if it had been on the wall.) Nothing, though, about children drawing on the floor.

Am I the only mother with a child who draws on the floor? Remember the Sharpie incident? We never did get that out. It's probably still there on the carpet, annoying the current residents.

I finally took a wet washcloth, a little dishsoap, and an old toothbrush. I laid on my stomach on the carpet, wet the toothbrush in a cup of water I had near me, dipped it lightly in the soap, then scrubbed like crazy. Wiped up the soap with the washcloth and went on to the next section. We'll see how it looks after it dries.

I'll probably rent a carpet cleaner later on, to make sure I get all the soap out of the carpet and to get any last traces of whatever that I might have missed.

I cannot believe she did that. Good heavens, the child is more than old enough to know not to draw on the floor! What in the world possessed her?