"Dear Cat Mom, . My 4-year-old daughter "Maya" is obsessed with cats. The problem is that she constantly takes her markers and draws whiskers on her face. It's an absolute pain in the ass to have to remove the ink on a near-daily basis. Maya loves to draw and I don't want to cut off her access to her markers, but as soon as she gets her hands on them, the whiskers get re-applied. Is there anything I can do about this, or am I just going to have to live with a kid with whiskers until she outgrows it?"
"I assume you have already told Maya that markers are only for paper. I don't see a problem with trying to impose a little limit. The next time she uses markers on her face-or anything that's not paper-you could choose to tell her she's lost markers for the rest of the day."
"Another approach is to not completely forbid the activity you find unacceptable, but instead look for some way to make it acceptable. When I was little, my friend and I spent a happy afternoon using my grandmother's makeup to give each other cat noses and whiskers. My grandma laughed and had our faces clean in about two minutes, since most makeup is more easily removed than Crayola marker. So if you'd rather let Maya have her fun, just not with markers, you could give her a (non-waterproof!) eyeliner pencil to do the same job. (I'd suggest white, for accuracy.)"
A 4-year-old repeatedly draws whiskers on her face with markers, creating frequent, difficult ink removal. One direct consequence is restricting marker use to paper and removing access for the rest of the day when markers are used on skin. An alternative is permitting face-decoration using easily removed cosmetics, such as grandmother's makeup or a non-waterproof eyeliner pencil, which cleans more readily than Crayola marker. Non-waterproof products and conventional makeup allow the child to enjoy cat-play while minimizing cleanup and avoiding permanent or hard-to-remove ink on skin.
Read at Slate Magazine
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