Drawing on the Wall

I was nursing monkey5 in the bedroom when moneky4 came in.  With crayon in hand pointing at the wall and very nonchalantly she asked me "What should I draw mama?".  All my kids have gone through a tagger face where the walls in our home (and a couple of times the walls of our extended families' homes) have become their vast canvas where they would draw stick people and wobbly lined creatures.  With all of them I've had the conversation where I would point out that the walls are not for drawing but that if they want to draw they can use paper. That usually works and they quickly cease their tagging ways.  However with moneky4 it has not been as easy.  I have had that conversation many tomes but she still draws on walls.  Now in my earlier mommy years I would have taken her insistence  as defiance and I would have punished her in some way.  But ever since I have been trying to become a more conscious mom I try to stop and think about the reason behind the behavior.  That morning when she so innocently came in to my bedroom and asked for my opinion on what she should draw, even after our many talks on why she should not draw on the walls made me see her innocence and her desire to express herself in her wall drawings.  A few days before monkey3, who's hobby is to clean the house (no, he did not get it from me!), decided he felt like cleaning the walls.  After monkey4 realised that many of her wall arts had been erased she broke out into sobs of sorrow and anger.  It's then that I began to understand how attached she was to her wall drawing, she was a true artist! So when she asked me for my opinion on what to draw I decided to show her understanding and respect for her desire to draw.  I told her that she still could not draw on the walls (we are renting), but that as soon as we moved and bought our own home I would give her her very own wall where she can draw anything she wanted as many times as she wanted.  He little face lit up with joy and she agreed to draw on paper from now on. That promise is one I fully intend to keep, God willing.