Painting with a Purpose

Today, I am finishing up the final touches on Isaac’s new spy room. I started the project last weekend, and I’m finally finishing it today after a busy week of work and Kids Camp. Painting Isaac’s room was the reward that followed a two week challenge to conquer one of his fears. Isaac has been afraid of going to bed. While this may seem fairly typical for most boys his age, we had reasons to be concerned based on various factors which I won’t go into now. At any rate, we spoke with a good friend of ours (Mohab Hanna) who is a child psychiatrist, and he recommended that we try to reward Isaac for overcoming his fears.

I’ll be honest, I had my questions as to whether or not this would work. Isaac had been coming out of his room almost nightly for the past several months – concerned that the doors were locked, that we were still awake, that Iso was okay, etc. I just wasn’t sure that this would work. We started it off by rewarding him with a play date with one of his buddies for passing the first two nights. After this, we waited a whole two weeks to award the paint project. Remarkably, he made it!

It’s been more than a week since the challenge finished, and Isaac has been doing a great job! We’re really proud that he is facing and overcoming his fears. Now it’s Hannah’s turn. Obviously, she would like her room painted also, so here’s her challenge. She has to go without biting her fingernails for three weeks, and I’ll be at it again.

The painting can be a lot of work, but it’s worth it to see the kids overcoming big challenges in their own lives.

Until the next post, I’ll be removing painter’s tape from the walls and paint from my hands…