Chalk is for OUTside?

Parenting can be such a joy.

It can also be a royal pain in the keister.

Little B has a chalkboard on his bedroom wall. He likes to have the ABC's and 123's written on the board. The 11 year old likes to write "The 11 year old ROCKS!" on the chalkboard. The 13 year old likes to erase the 11 year old's message and replace it with "The 13 year old ROCKS!!!" The 11 year old then erases the 13 year old's message and... Well, you can guess the next step and the next.

In order to facilitate the aforementioned stress, Little B comes equiped with a box of coloured chalk. This is so every letter of the alphabet, or nearly every one, can be drawn in a different shade. Simone also allows Little B to bring his bucket of chalk outside so she can etch the beloved alphabet right there on the sidewalk.

Do you sense trouble brewing? Yes. The sharper ones amongst you - or the ones grown dull and weary from having too many children around - will guess what happened.

Little B put two and two together. Chalk? Carpet? Woo-hoo! Now some of you might not feel that chalk and carpet are a terrible combination. After all, chalk is water soluble and therefore will not permanently wreck the carpet in the same way that, oh, cherry soday will. Simone, however, chose to see it as a dangerous prelude to crayons, markers and, gasp!, paint on the carpet.

"Did I not leave you in charge?" Simone asked the 11 year old who was supposed to watch Little B while Simone took out the garbage.

"Yes," said the 11 year old.

"Did you not notice that he was using chalk on the carpet?" Simone demanded.

"Well, yeah. I told him not to do it. I told him you'd be mad. But he just kept rolling the chalk on the carpet!" said the 11 year old near tears.

Sigh. Tomorrow, fortunately, is another day. And the chalk has now been placed well out of Little B's reach.

"Chalk," Simone said, "Is for OUTside."

"Shawkbor!" Little B pointed reasonably to the chalkboard.

Ah, raspberry. The kid is just too smart.