Painting with a 14 Year Old

We are having to paint the walls back to basic (boring) white. We painted them nice warm colors when we moved in. When we took the house we were told, "As long as you paint them the lightest color on the color strip, you won't have to paint when you leave."

After we bought the pretty colored paint we were told, "Oh no, you don't have to paint. You just have to prime."

Which is painting..........with primer.

So anyway, after much arguing, we are painting (with primer - it doesn't count apparently). Now that Ben is old enough to wield a paintbrush reasonably well, we've had him, and his best friend Jack, helping us.

I think I've been a fabulous mom about this. I had them help for an hour, then they got to go do whatever they wanted for 30 minutes, then they came back and worked for 30 minutes, then they got a two hour break to visit with friends.

Jack has been fabulous. This isn't his family, these aren't his walls, but he is cheerfully in there working, helping us out.

Ben has groused incessantly about how this is his last chance to see some of his friends and he should be out spending time with them.

I told him, "Your father and I would rather be with our friends than in here cleaning and painting too. You don't hear us complaining about it."

This move has been the hardest one for him ever. He did not want to move to Kansas, he loved Virginia and was very unhappy about having to move to Kansas. All his plans revolved around the day he would be able to move back to Virginia. I keep telling him he will love Hawaii just as much. He knows he will enjoy it, but it is definitely hard to leave his friends.

I've got to go wash this primer, which is not paint, off my hands.

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