this post was submitted on 10 Jun 2025
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Parenting
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Look Mommy, I'm a kitty! I have whiskers! πΈοΈβΊοΈ
That's basically the best possible outcome.
Toddlers are the reason why, despite being able to afford nice furniture for the first time in our life, we're sticking with ratty couches and old Ikea coffee tables.
My parents didn't buy good furniture until after I left home. They always said they would when the kids were gone but I moved out and my first visit they had new furniture, so I'm pretty sure it was me they were waiting for to leave.
Unrelated, I spilt coke on the new furniture on that first visit.
I have crappy old couches etc....because my three boys are very rough.
Why buy nice stuff that you have to worry about.
We have never bought new couches. My main chair is older than I am. But I did sit in a chair in a shop the other day and the back was right up behind my head, a surprisingly hard thing to find for someone tall-ish like me. Almost made me want to buy it.
I hate visiting other people because they have short backed couches that just aren't person-shaped. Makes me wonder how they sit there for hours.
"Cleaning your house while your kids are still growing is like shoveling the sidewalk before it stops snowing." Phyllis Diller
I have a kid who (on a regular basis) took felt tip pens and just started colouring at the toes, up the legs, arms, all the way to the head sometimes. Changing colours as they felt like it.
They did this well past the toddler years.
Pro tip: washable markers are a lot more washable if you wash it off straight away instead of waiting all day.
Goddammit, now I want to get out my box of washable markers and color myself from toes to nose! I'm going to be a grownup and remind myself it would use up all the markers.
But you're also a grownup who can buy more markers!
Exactly, I say go for it. Just don't do anything... racist
Thankfully, Sharpie marks (even the "industrial" ones) are pretty easy to remove with rubbing alcohol
Tracing over sharpie marks with dry erase markers makes it way easier to clean depending on the surface. I've only tried it on non-porous surfaces though.
Acetone in the dry erase is doing the heavy lifting in this scenario.
From experience, that works even on soft furnishings
Acetone is the solvent in the sharpie pen.
I was doing a remodel and exposed a wall covered in Sharpie graffiti from previous clientele. Painter looked dismayed. I sent for a case of rubbing alcohol and got rid of it.
Fun fact, this is reason 69420 that I don't have a toddler
Damn! You kill a LOT of toddlers!
Its too late unless you saw the thing rolling.
Shit like that gets put up high. Like on top of tall cabinets.
Small children are surprisingly adept climbers, and ingenius problem solvers when the problem is one you don't want them solving.
Locks with the key somewhere they definitely cannot get it work, right up until you forget to lock the cabinet one time. Then you hope that curiosity doesn't overcome the bounraries you've laid down.
Honestly thought it was a bullet vibe and then I read the community this was posted in. And then looked again. Marker cap. Ohh. That also makes sense. Hard to put it in context when one doesn't have children haha.