Let Them Paint the Walls

The hidden costs of suppressing natural talents.

Image by the author | Our bathtub

I turned away for a minute to grab a towel from the hallway closet. When I returned, there he was, my 6-year-old son, grinning with unfiltered joy, little palms covered in colored soap, pressing deliberate prints on every bathtub surface. Smudges of blue, green, and orange decorated in a chaotic pattern that only made sense to its tiny creator.

My first instinct was to get upset. To exclaim about the mess dripping on the floor, the cleanup he’d have to do, or the fact that we had no time and had to leave soon. The words formed in my throat like an automatic parental response to contain and correct him, to have him conform.

But something made me pause.

The look on his face wasn’t mischief. Not destruction. Not defiance. Just pure creative delight. He was so proud to show me. He wore an expression of something that came naturally to him… making things, creating patterns, transforming spaces into whatever his mind conjured. This was a happy little boy doing what he loved to do best.

So, instead of stopping him, I watched. For just a minute, I let him paint the walls. I told him we could drop him off at school instead of catching the bus. In that small moment of parental restraint, I witnessed something awesome about…