I’m sitting here staring at the wooden window blinds in front of my desk. One of my little ones, presumably my three year old, has taken a pencil and drawn all over them. I am at peace with it — at least it wasn’t a permanent marker.

I have not always been so calm about the kids marking on walls. I remember an incident about nine years ago when my oldest child was only a toddler. He took a pencil and marked on the walls from the top of the stairs all the way down to the bottom floor of our townhouse. It was not a pretty scene. And, when I say it was not a pretty scene I am not talking about the aesthetic value of his two-year-old artwork; I am talking about the scene I created as I chastised him for acting like a two-year-old.

I think we have done a pretty good job of raising our kids to behave. However, each of our five kids in turn has engaged in sordid toddler wall-art graffiti. Crayons, Sharpies, pencils, pens, chalk… it seems they each have had an illicit tool of choice. Thankfully, the current Venetian Blinds inscription came from pencil rather than something more damaging. We won’t be required to replace them. And, I guess it is not just my kids who are growing up, for although I am unhappy with little Michelangelo’s artwork, I did not create the kind of scene I did nine years ago.